Team B to the Rescue
by tpt player 5701
Summary: Seven months after battling the Chitauri, Tony Stark is captured and held for ransom by an old enemy, and there is nothing the Avengers can do about it because they are hostages in their own Tower—or is there? Follow the adventures of the Avengers Team B as they race to rescue Tony and thwart the evil mastermind.
1. Preview

For those who have read my other stories: I'm sure you've been waiting with bated breath for the much-anticipated (by me, at least) sequel to come out. Well, here it is! I hope you will enjoy it!

For my new readers: Before you begin reading this story, you should know that this is a follow up to my previous two stories:

Avengers Plan B: _Just because the Avengers thought they were all alone against the Chitauri doesn't mean they really were. Director Fury, the supreme super spy, had a Plan B… and a Plan C… and a Plan D… This story introduces Avengers Team B, the main protagonists of "Team B to the Rescue."_

Stark Security Situation: _Did you think Tony Stark was a heartless narcissist? Put your mind at ease; he really did mourn the "death" of Phil "His First Name is 'Agent'" Coulson. Along the way, however, he uncovered a nefarious plot to attack the Avengers directly. Plot elements and characters introduced in this story will become increasingly relevant to "Team B to the Rescue."_

As always, I do not own any of the recognizable characters mentioned. I tried to keep the Marvel characters as close to their canon appearance and characterization, though I modified several characters' back stories so they would fit into the Marvel Cinematic Universe a little better. If you notice anything incorrect or inaccurate about any of the characters, let me know in a message or a review, and I will either correct it or give an explanation of why I did what I did.


	2. Chapter 1

Clint Barton shut off the power on his black motorcycle in his spot of the Avengers' private parking area. He pulled off his dark purple helmet and hung it over the handlebar before pulling his go-bag over his shoulder to rest next to his quiver. His sniper rifle went over his shoulder next as he withdrew it from its specially-designed compartment on the side of the motorcycle. He slowly, gingerly, walked to the elevator bay. JARVIS had already summoned the elevator for him, so the doors slid open as soon as he reached them.

Five minutes later, Clint stumbled out of the elevator on the 125th floor, which contained the team's living quarters (Tony of course had his own floor with Pepper; as much of a team player as he may have become over the last seven months, some things just never change). Opening the door to his own room, he collapsed on the bed without bothering to pull off his boots.

He had been lying there for a few minutes when he sensed rather than heard his partner's entry. "You still can't sneak up on me, Tash," he mumbled into the bed without lifting his head.

"How did the mission go?" she asked, sitting down on the bed and starting to pull his boots off.

"It wasn't quite the cakewalk Phil promised yesterday," Clint began. "The hostage situation had already spiraled out of control before we even arrived. They'd pretended to let a woman and her young daughter go free as a sign of good faith, but shot the mother in the back just as she got to the bottom of the stairs. She died in her traumatized daughter's arms. The locals weren't in a forgiving mood after that; hence the call-out to us.

"Phil had me set up on a rooftop across from the bank entrance, along with a remote feed of the bank surveillance cameras. It didn't give me much; they'd blacked out all of the visible cameras and most of the hidden ones within the first three minutes of the standoff, so all I had was an ATM camera at the entrance, a hidden camera in the vault, and a camera hidden in a flowerpot by a teller's window. I spent the whole night observing the bank to figure out the robbers' patrol patterns and command structure, while Phil put together the plan for our attack.

"The plan was for Tony to distract the guards while I took them out with my sniper rifle. Unfortunately, the guys in the front area were just out of my line of sight, so we had to change tactics on the fly. Tony flew through the front door to keep the robbers occupied and get the three in the vault, while I swung through the front window and subdued the five in the lobby."

"Another window?" Natasha asked with a smirk, tugging his vest off and gesturing to the deep lacerations along his arms. "Haven't you learned your lesson yet?"

"Hey, the shortest distance between two points, right? I can't help if a window happens to get in the way!"

"So you swung through yet another window…" Natasha prodded.

Clint grimaced. "Just because I do it so much doesn't mean I will ever get used to it. The height difference meant that this time I had to jump off the roof _before_ shooting my grappling hook, and winch the cord up a few feet before I hit the window so I wouldn't smack into the ground first."

"You didn't…" she said with concern, glancing at the bruises on his chest.

"Of course I didn't; who do you think I am?" Clint laughed. "That went just fine; I even went through feet first this time. Doesn't mean it didn't hurt, though," he said, stretching out his leg with a groan. "At least one of the robbers was kind enough to break my fall with his body. Tony had already taken out one with his entry, and the last three in the lobby went down pretty quickly; two with arrows through their necks and one with a boot between his shoulders. Tony took out the three in the vault before they even realized they had a problem."

"So why do you say it wasn't a cakewalk?" Natasha asked, moving up to wipe the blood away from his exposed arms and apply bandages to the worst cuts.

"I didn't say it wasn't a cakewalk; I said it wasn't the cakewalk that Phil _promised_," Clint said with a smirk. "We expected it to be beyond the locals' abilities, but easy by our standards. The fact of the matter is that it was easy by anyone's standards. The regular police could have handled it with minimal collateral damage before they shot that woman; the local SWAT team could have ended it with a couple flash-bangs after they did. But for some strange reason someone higher up the food chain thought they needed the Avengers to take those amateurs down. And not just _any_ Avengers," Clint said, sitting upright with a groan, "but Iron Man."

"Oh?"

"They were in an enclosed space with hostages, so the Hulk was out of the question. They had automatic weapons and grenades, and only Iron Man's armor would provide adequate protection; Cap's shield just doesn't cover quite enough, and you wouldn't have stood much chance if they'd all opened up on you at once. But why would they want Tony there? I have to tell Phil." He tried to get up from the bed.

"Not until you take a shower and I re-bandage your arms," Natasha said with a stern look, pushing him back down. She pointed at the bathroom and said, "Go."

"Yes, ma'am," the archer said sarcastically, but nevertheless he obediently went into the bathroom that connected their rooms for his shower.

* * *

Twenty minutes later, Clint stepped out of the Avengers' private elevator on the community floor and saw Steve sitting on a couch frowning at his laptop computer. "Has Tony come back yet?"

"Huh? Not that I've noticed, but I've been trying to monitor the news fallout from your mission this morning," Cap replied, furrowing his brow.

"What's that look for?"

"They haven't said anything."

"Nothing?"

"Not a peep. JARVIS confirms it; the news networks have been completely blacking it out, despite Fury's desire for them to cover our more public missions when they give us good PR, like this one would," Steve answered.

"Odd, since there was a news crew there the whole time. JARVIS, has Iron Man returned yet?" Clint called out.

"No, Agent Barton, he has not. Actually, I lost contact with the suit fifteen minutes after the mission ended, when he stopped to talk to the news reporters on the ground. I assumed that he did not want to be interrupted during the interview, but further analysis shows that the suit was abruptly taken offline less than a minute after the connection was terminated," JARVIS responded, sounding apologetic.

"Dammit, it was a set-up!" Barton cursed.

"What?" Cap demanded, startled by the other man's vehemence.

"They didn't really need us; the locals could have done the same thing we did without us. It was like they knew I was there; they were keeping away from the cameras and windows so I couldn't get a fix on their location to shoot them. They made it impossible for anyone to respond other than Iron Man," Clint listed off on his fingers, pacing agitatedly as he did so. "Plus, something just _felt_ wrong about the whole situation, like someone was watching me. JARVIS, pull up the map of the area around the bank."

As soon as the A.I. complied, the sniper took a quick glance and said, "Find any footage you can of that rooftop there: 200 meters from the bank, four stories off the ground, with a clear line-of-sight into the bank at a 30-degree angle."

The A.I. brought up a traffic camera with a clear view of the rooftop in question, which showed nothing. "I know you've been seeing that sniper everywhere for the last six months, Barton, but there's no reason to suspect a connection between him and this bank job," Steve said, trying to reassure the man. "Those two attacks were direct attacks on the Avengers: first on the Tower, and then against Iron Man's personal assistant and co-CEO. This was a random bank in the Bronx; no connection to us."

Not to be deterred, Clint analyzed the television in front of him carefully. Suddenly he said, "Zoom out and give me the whole area."

A minute later, Steve heard a violent muttered curse. "What is it?"

"Look at that," Clint said, pointing at a rooftop a block down the street from the one he had first looked at. "Still think there isn't a connection?"

Looking closer at the building in question, Steve had to admit that he saw the distinctive glint of light reflecting off the scope of a sniper rifle. "Mr. Dragunov is back," Clint said.

"But why is he on that roof and not the other one if he likes to be 200 meters from the target?" Steve asked, confused.

"Because that rooftop _was_ 200 meters from his target. JARVIS?"

The pool table in the middle of the room, which doubled as a hologram projector, showed a holographic map of the Bronx, with five locations highlighted: The bank, Clint's perch, Iron Man's location next to the bank, Phil's position at the police command post, and the roof with the other sniper. Without being asked, JARVIS traced a red line from the enemy sniper's location to his target, exactly 200 meters away. Unnecessarily, Clint said, "_I_ was his target. If we hadn't changed our plan at the last minute, he probably would have taken me out as soon as I took my shots, and left Tony isolated."

"But what did they want Tony for?" Steve wondered out loud.

* * *

Tony Stark groaned as he returned to consciousness. He shook his head and tried to rub his temple to make the headache go away. He was somewhat startled when he realized his arm wouldn't move. His brain slowly registered that his arms were bound to the sides of the chair in which he sat. Trying to move his legs revealed that they were similarly bound. As the fuzziness in his brain gradually receded, he suddenly remembered what had happened.

_After he had taken out the three armed robbers in the bank vault, Clint had walked in. He and Clint had shaken hands. They looked out through the demolished lobby and saw a news crew waiting with camera and microphone at the ready to take an interview._

"_I can't let them see my face," Clint muttered to him._

"_Go out the back; I'll give them an interview. Besides, between the two of us, I'm the better looking _and_ less likely to put an arrow through that reporter's eye!"_

_Clint had ignored the jab and simply nodded before slipping through the back door of the bank. "I'll see you back at the Tower in a bit," Tony called after him._

_The billionaire flipped his face plate up, severed his connection to JARVIS, put on the broadest grin he could manage, and walked out of the bank through the front door. He reporter immediately accosted him and shoved his microphone into Tony's face._

"_That looked like an intense standoff, Mr. Stark. Give us your impression."_

_Tony looked into the reporter's eyes before turning to look directly into the camera. "That? That was nothing compared to some of my other missions. Walk in the park," he said with a dismissive wave._

_Before the words were out of his mouth, his eyes opened wide in shock as a white light shot out of the camera directly into his ARC reactor. The reactor flickered for a moment, but the suit began to shut down as white energy spread from the reactor into all the suit's circuitry. The force of the blast knocked Tony backwards. He tried to catch himself, but the suit wouldn't respond. He flickered into unconsciousness as the reporter leaned over him._

Realization dawned on Tony as he considered what had happened. _That must have been an electromagnetic pulse. It shut down the suit, but fortunately the ARC reactor's power source is strong enough to keep going._

Tony looked around to take stock of his situation. He could see a tripod in front of him, with a camera sitting on it. Suddenly lights came on around him, blinding him. Through the haze, however, he could see the red light on the camera flick on.


	3. Chapter 2

AN: I feel like I should point out that at least a few elements of my characterization of Hawkeye are from Aggie2011's Vantage Point universe. Great stories if you haven't read them.

* * *

"I found a tin can today," a smug voice said from the television behind where Clint and Steve were looking at the holographic projection above the pool table. The two Avengers whipped around in surprise to see that the television had come on, and a man was looking at them. He was in his mid-thirties, sallow-looking, with glasses and well-kept blond hair that clashed sharply with the orange jumpsuit he was wearing.

"Now that I've got your attention," he continued, leering into the camera, "An associate of mine happened to be walking down the street in the Bronx and found a tin can lying around earlier today. He peeled it open, and what do you think he found inside?"

The man's cruelly grinning face flickered out as the view changed to reveal Tony Stark, bathed in light, sitting tied to a chair. They were relieved to see the glowing blue light of his ARC reactor through the fabric of his shirt. Beneath the chair, however, the two men could plainly see a three-foot cube with a detonator attached to it. Clint's trained eye determined at once that it was a remotely-triggered C4 explosive. Tony was blinking in the powerful light, trying to see past the camera.

The screen split to show Tony on the left side and the unfamiliar man on the right. "You recognize him, right? I've taken something of yours, because you've taken something of mine. I may even give Anthony back if you and your government buddies do two things for me. First, you will get me an early release. As relaxing as my stay at Otisville country club has been, I think I've had enough of a break from work for now. Which leads me to my second demand: you will restore my company's good name and return control of it to me. That's all I need, really. Getting a nice fat defense contract won't be very difficult, you see, since my engineers are already playing with the Tin Man's suit.

"Now, I know you want to rush out and save your sharply-dressed man, but I've taken great pains to ensure that I hold all the cards today. Let me save you the trouble: _You and your friends will not leave the Tower—_your_ prison—for any reason until I leave _my_ prison!_ Otherwise…"

Both views faded as they were replaced by a video of Avengers Tower. Clint immediately recognized where it was being shot from: The roof of an office building 200 meters from the front entrance of the Tower, with a 30-degree angle trajectory toward the entrance. As the view was magnified, he realized from the crosshairs and the range indicator in the top right corner that it was the view from a spotter scope. They saw the crosshairs narrow onto the forehead of a tall, thin, strawberry-blonde woman who was holding a little girl's left hand. The girl's bright red hair was accentuated by the brand-new Black Widow shirt she was wearing, which she had obviously just bought from the Avengers Gift Shop; the tag was plainly visible through the scope. The woman was laughing and smiling. Her resemblance to Pepper Potts was unmistakable.

Time seemed slow down just then as they heard the crack of a bullet being fired through the television. The woman's head exploded in a shower of blood as the bullet impacted. They could see the girl's shock and horror as her mother collapsed to the ground in front of her, spattering blood down the front of the girl's new shirt, as the sound of the bullet finally reached them through the walls of the tower.

"That's just one sniper team," the voice cut in. "I have more all around your Tower. Want another demonstration? You saw the C4 under Anthony's chair, right? If any of you try to leave, you get a bullet in the head, just like that, and Anthony gets blown into tiny pieces and scattered across Harlem. That applies to that CEO of his, too. My associates may have missed her six months ago, but they won't next time . I also have teams outside with rocket launchers and surface-to-air missile launchers in case you try flying or driving away. Any hint of resistance, and I even have an assault team locked and loaded to attack your Tower yet again.

"Now get me out of here and give me my company back, or you know what happens." The television screen clicked off.

"I apologize for that," JARVIS' voice said after Steve and Clint had stared at the darkened television screen for a few moments in shock. "The Iron Man suit's transmission protocol was used to hack into the tower mainframe and transmit that video. I have now disabled those protocols and strengthened the firewall to prevent future intrusions using the same method."

"Was he able to see us at all?" Clint asked worriedly.

"Negative, Agent Barton. He only had the ability to _send_ video, not receive it."

"JARVIS, call Director Fury and inform him of the situation," Steve said, too preoccupied to acknowledge the apology or the other man's concern. "Send him a copy of the recording as well as Agent Barton's findings. Has NYPD been informed of the shooting outside? If not, let them know. And, JARVIS, tell Dr. Banner and Agent Romanoff to meet us in the conference room as soon as possible."

"Where is Ms. Potts right now?" Clint asked suddenly.

"What's wrong?" Steve turned to look at him, confusion in his eyes.

"She is in the conference room on the Stark Industries administrative floor, meeting with a potential clean energy client," JARVIS reported.

"Did you notice that the man singled Pepper out specifically with his threat? We've got to get her out of that meeting now," Clint said hurriedly. "JARVIS, tell Romanoff that Pepper's got a Madrid situation."

In response to Steve's questioning look, the assassin merely shrugged and said, "That's the nice thing about working with someone for so long; cuts down on long explanations."

At that moment, JARVIS said, "Agent Romanoff told me to tell you that she will handle it just like Dubai."

"She's going to need backup if she's doing that. Tell her I'll be in place in three. And JARVIS? Send Vision down there, too."

* * *

Three minutes later, Clint walked onto the 110th floor of the tower, the Stark Industries administrative floor, in a button-down shirt and tie. He wore a bulky blue sport coat to hide the Desert Eagle in his shoulder holster and Ka-Bar knife at his waist. He casually leaned against the wall next to the water cooler, giving him a clear view of the conference room through the glass walls. Pepper sat at the head of the conference table, chatting animatedly with a middle-aged bald man in a grey pinstriped suit. He watched his partner step off the elevator and march straight into the conference room. Every male eye on the floor turned to follow her as she walked past in a black pencil skirt and white blouse, a tablet computer held in her right hand. Clint was too used to her appearance eliciting that reaction to be bothered much, though his hand shifted imperceptibly toward the handle of his gun, anyways.

"Ms. Potts, I'm so sorry to interrupt, but you have an urgent phone call in your office," "Natalie Rushman" said breathlessly as she stopped by Pepper's chair.

Pepper's confusion only lasted a moment as she caught on to what was happening. "Ms. Rushman? What is so urgent?"

"A major customer called with a serious question about his shipment from the weapons manufacturing division," "Natalie" responded. "He made it very clear that it is an urgent situation."

"Then I suppose I must address the situation at once," Pepper said, rising to her feet. "Mr. Smith, I am sorry to have to cut this meeting short, but I would be happy to schedule another meeting once this situation has been resolved. I will have my secretary call you to set up the appointment. Good day."

Pepper started to walk toward the door. Just as she reached to pull open the door handle, however, her "client" reached into his coat pocket and withdrew a snub-nose revolver. Pepper screamed.

Before the man could bring his weapon up and fire, however, Natasha whipped around into a roundhouse kick, laying the man out on the floor, unconscious. She kicked the gun away from his hand just as Clint barreled into the room, Desert Eagle already out in his left hand at the ready. He pushed the two women down to crouch behind the large oak conference table.

"Get her out of here," Clint hissed, pointing his gun at the unconscious man's head. Without questioning, Natasha pushed Pepper out of the conference room, keeping low to the ground, and toward the elevator. Clint looked over the edge of the table, expecting the glass to shatter from the impact of a sniper's round any moment. The elevator doors opened just as the women got there, and the VISION android gestured for them to step inside. Meanwhile, Clint zip-tied the would-be assassin's hands and dragged him to the other elevator to bring him down to the basement detention cell.

* * *

Ten minutes later, after Clint had dealt with the hit man, he returned to the Avengers' floors of the Tower to find the others.

The other three Avengers were all sitting in the conference room on the Avengers' administration floor, along with a shaken and very confused Pepper Potts and the VISION android. Clint sat down at the table between Steve and Natasha, and they silently watched the video on the screens built into the table in front of them. They had just finished when the large video screen with the S.H.I.E.L.D. logo on it against the far wall changed to a live video feed, revealing Director Fury, flanked by Agents Hill and Coulson.

"Iron Man has been captured, and we just had an assassination attempt against an Avengers dependant _in Avengers Tower!_ Sir, what are you going to do about this situation?" Captain America demanded.

Director Fury looked uncomfortable as he responded, "Truthfully, I'm not sure what options we have. We can't acquiesce to his demands—"

"It wouldn't matter even if we did," Romanoff interrupted. She ignored her superior's glare as she continued, "Justin Hammer hates Stark with a passion; I learned that on my undercover mission two years ago. He wouldn't just let him walk out of there, not after going through all this trouble to capture him, and not after everything that happened a year and a half ago."

Romanoff looked to her right when she heard a stifled gasp from the other woman present. Natasha put her hand on Pepper's, looked her in the eye, and gave her hand a gentle, reassuring squeeze.

"Leaving him and his suit in Hammer's clutches is completely out of the question," Coulson interjected with a look at the two redheads. "He's one of us, even if he _does_ try our patience, so we can't leave him behind. Plus, who knows what kind of mischief Hammer would get up to _this_ time with the Iron Man suit!"

"Unfortunately, I don't see any options for us to get him back," Clint responded angrily. "It's too bad Thor is back on Asgard for now. Hammer has already shown that he doesn't mind killing innocent civilians, and I'm not willing to risk Stark's life by testing his claim to have the Tower locked down. At least not yet," he amended, sharing a glance with his partner, who nodded slightly and gave him the faintest of smirks.

"So what do we do about this?" Bruce demanded, eyes beginning to turn green. He swallowed heavily to repress his other side before saying, "We can't leave the Tower, we can't submit to this lunatic's demands, but we also can't sit here and do nothing, so what do we do to get Tony back?"

Steve hadn't missed the inner struggle in the other man's eyes. He gave him a concerned look before turning toward the view screen and saying, "For now, all we can do in the Tower is triple our security to keep any more unwanted assassins from coming in. As far as Stark is concerned, however, should we call in Team B?"

"That's exactly what we need to do. Agent Hill, I think you need to make a phone call," Fury said, turning to his lieutenant.


	4. Chapter 3

AN: Thanks to those who have reviewed, favorited, and followed this story so far.

* * *

Lieutenant Colonel James Rhodes had just poured himself a cup of coffee and sat down in one of the straight-backed chairs in the Chief of Staff of the Air Force's office when his S.H.I.E.L.D.-issued pager went off. A glance at the code showed that S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent Maria Hill was calling regarding an urgent developing situation. With a hurried apology to his superior officer, Rhodes picked up his disposable cup, downed the contents in a single burning-hot gulp, tossed the cup into the trash can, and walked quickly out of the office. He pulled out his cell phone and thumbed a single number.

"Hill," a severe female voice responded after a single ring.

"You people really don't like me talking to the most important uniformed officer in the Air Force," Rhodey observed wryly. "That's my second meeting with him this year that you've interrupted. Out of two. So what's so impor—"

"Tony Stark has been captured," Agent Hill interrupted briskly.

"_What?_" Rhodey said in surprise. Several nearby servicemen gave him a startled look when they heard him cry out. He waved them off with a gesture as Hill continued to speak.

"He was taken on his way back to the Tower this morning after going out on an _easy_ mission with Hawkeye yesterday evening. Justin Hammer has him and is demanding to be released from prison."

"Justin Hammer? As in Justin "I was trying to take a dump on Tony's front lawn but just managed to soil myself" Hammer? _That_ piece of trash? Oh, hell, no," Rhodey responded angrily.

"Oh, yes," Hill snapped back. "He's basically holding Team A hostage in the Tower, so your team gets to take point on this mission. Rhodes, I need to warn you: This isn't going to be anything like those other missions you've been on with us, where only one of two of you were needed; this is a drop-everything,-all-hands-on-deck mission like the Chitauri invasion: We need him back yesterday. The helicarrier is currently docked in the Chesapeake. Get in here as soon as possible." The line clicked dead.

Rhodey began muttering to himself in anger and frustration as he walked quickly to the weapons locker on the top floor of the Pentagon that housed his War Machine armor while he was in D.C. He wasn't paying any attention as the boots formed around his feet the moment he stepped on the yellow circle I the floor and the armor quickly worked its way up his legs. The breastplate rose out of the floor, snapped into place, and connected with the back plate of the armor. The metal scales rippled down his arms from the shoulders, covering every inch of his [dress blue uniform] and ending in gauntlets that covered his [bleached-white dress gloves]. The neck piece formed and slid up to cover the back of his head, and the helmet snapped down to cover his face as the heads-up display flickered on. Finally, his shoulder-mounted mini-gun extended out of its housing in his back and activated as it snapped down into place.

A small circular section of the ceiling above the room split along an invisible seam and slid open far enough to allow him to leave. Rhodey activated the suit's thrusters and hurtled out of the room through the opening, directing his course slightly north-east toward the helicarrier.

"JARVIS, give me a sit. rep.," he ordered as he settled into a cruising altitude of 200 feet.

"Sir, Mr. Stark was captured a couple hours ago following an attempted bank robbery in the Bronx. Mr. Stark and Agent Barton responded to the incident yesterday around 6 PM after the robbers shot a hostage, and breached the bank this morning at 8:00 AM. After they subdued all the robbers, Agent Barton left in secret to avoid the press, while Mr. Stark went to give an interview. At that point he severed his connection to me, and shortly thereafter his suit was forcibly shut down by unknown means. Since then Mr. Hammer has informed the Avengers at the Tower that he is holding them prisoner in the tower until he is released from prison and his company is restored to him."

"And S.H.I.E.L.D. isn't interested in submitting to either of those demands," Rhodey stated definitively, "even _if_ Hammer had any intention of holding up his side of the bargain." He pushed his thrusters to their maximum strength, and landed on the deck of the helicarrier less than five minutes later.

Agent Hill was already on the deck waiting for him. She met him as soon as he landed and led him below deck to the main conference room, where he saw Agents Carol Danvers, Barbara Morse, and Scott Lang sitting on one side of the table. Director Fury sat at the head of the table, with Agent Coulson sitting on his left and an empty chair on his right, which Agent Hill immediately took. The view screen on one side of the room showed the back wall of the Heroes for Hire office in downtown Manhattan, with Danny Rand and Luke Cage sitting in front of it.

As soon as Rhodey had taken the unoccupied seat at the other end of the table, Director Fury silently touched a button on the console in front of him, and the screen replayed the message from Justin Hammer for the members of Avengers Team B. When the message had ended, Fury said, "I don't think I need to tell you how important it is for us to get him back. You need to be careful in searching for him; we don't think Hammer is aware of your team's existence, but we can't be certain that he is devoting all his efforts to keeping Team A pinned down in their Tower. He's smart enough to at least _prepare_ for a rescue attempt."

"So I guess our only question now is where to begin," Scott Lang commented.

"Isn't it obvious?" Danny Rand asked. "Hammer said he was in Harlem, so we need to start there."

"Gentlemen—ladies—you have work to do. Dismissed," Fury said.

* * *

Ten minutes later, the four Avengers on the helicarrier were standing in the main hangar bay below deck in front of their assigned quinjet. Because the helicarrier was floating in the Chesapeake rather than hovering above it, the main hangar bay doors were underwater. Rhodes gestured for the other three to follow him up the loading ramp into the plane. While Rhodes and Lang took seats on the benches along the sides of the main cabin, Danvers and Morse took their seats in the pilot's and co-pilot's seats respectively.

As soon as they raised the ramp, Danvers started the jet engine and spoke into the jet's radio, "Avenger Two requesting launch authorization, code Delta-Foxtrot-07345."

They received an immediate response: "You are authorized for launch from the main runway. Stand by for the elevator."

The four Avengers felt a sudden jolt as the elevator underneath their plane activated, pushing them up toward the ceiling. The ceiling retracted above them as they reached it, showing them a cloudy afternoon sky. Once the elevator stopped moving, Carol Danvers pressed another button on the console to initiate vertical takeoff. As soon as the quinjet reached the cloud cover at 1000 feet, Carol turned the jet north toward New York City.

"Power Man and Iron Fist are going to meet us in Harlem, right?" Bobbi asked without taking her eyes off the console in front of her.

"Yes," Rhodes replied with a nod. "We didn't want to raise anyone's suspicion by having them come down and meet us at the carrier. They are going to start asking around and checking out possible hiding places as soon as they get to Harlem. I already have JARVIS working on hacking into the feed from every surveillance camera in the area to look for anything suspicious.

"We're looking for suspicious activity in Harlem?" Scott said sarcastically. "That's like looking for a needle in a _needle_ stack!"

"It's not the best situation we could ask for, but at least we have somewhere to start," Rhodes replied.

"Yeah, unlike two months ago in South Africa!" Carol laughed.

"Don't remind me," Scott groaned, raising both hands to his forehead.

"Oh?" Rhodes asked curiously.

"The two of them had to spend five weeks searching the entire country of South Africa for a missing Wakandan diplomat," Bobbi informed him. "Something about S.H.I.E.L.D.'s agreement with Black Panther. Of course, the guy turned out not to even be _in_ South Africa; he was actually in Lesotho."

"Even then, it was only by luck that I was paying attention to my scanner when I flew over Lesotho on one of my search passes," Carol observed. "Once we knew where the man was, it was a fairly simple matter to rescue him."

At that moment Rhodey's suit beeped to inform him that JARVIS had retrieved surveillance information from several traffic cameras in Harlem. Unfortunately, they showed nothing unusual apart from the occasional drug deal. He ordered JARVIS to keep looking.

* * *

Luke Cage pulled his motorcycle up in front of a convenience store on the edge of Harlem. Danny Rand jumped off the back and walked into the store. He was wearing a pair of loose khaki cargo pants and a lime green T-shirt with a dragon emblem emblazoned on the front. He had not yet put on his headband since they were trying to be covert, and all of the Avengers had been shown on the news at least once following the incident seven months ago with the Chitauri; the Avengers Gift Shop actually sold replicas of his headband for $10.

Danny walked around the store casually, browsing through the snack aisle and taking in his surroundings. A couple of men were standing in the hardware section with their heads close together. Iron Fist grabbed a handful of potato chip bags as snacks for the mission, and moved toward the cashier to pay.

Before he got there, however, he walked past the two men and overheard one say quietly, "Why does he need so many of us guarding the prisoner when his team can't even leave the tower to rescue him?"

"Since when does anything the boss does make sense?" the other man answered with a shrug.

One man grabbed a pack of Twinkies, and they both walked up to the cash register to pay. Rand pulled out his cell phone and sent a quick text to Luke: "got a lead 2 guys abt 2 leave get rdy 2 roll".

Danny watched the men get into a black town car and drive away south. Before they had gotten far, however, he watched Luke press a button on the handlebar of his motorcycle. A tiny tracking device shot out and attached to the car's bumper. Danny waited another minute before quickly paying for his snacks and rushing out the door. He saw that Cage was already revving the engine to give chase. Danny shouted in his ear, "They may be part of the group guarding Stark! Follow them, but keep back!"

The two heroes turned south and followed the town car. By then the car was 4 blocks away, and Luke was careful to maintain that amount of separation. Because they were so far away, they nearly lost the car five minutes into the trip when it made a right turn onto a busier street. Thanks to the tracking device, however, they quickly relocated the car. Finally, the town car turned left off the main street to go down a residential street. Luke followed the car down the street several minutes later.

They'd only gone half a block when a parked black Suburban in front of them pulled out sharply, cutting them off in front. Another black Suburban pulled out behind them, trapping them. At the same moment, the tracking dot on the motorcycle's monitor screen blinked out. They both suddenly realized they'd made a grave mistake.

"If they find out who we are and what we're doing here, Stark is dead," Danny muttered under his breath. "And that's not all they'll do."

"Not necessarily, but if they _report_ who we are and what we're doing here, Stark is dead," Luke muttered back.

"So we have to either convince them we're harmless or eliminate every last one of them?" Danny responded with a look.

"That's the way I see it," Luke muttered with an imperceptible nod.

"Great."

A big man wearing a black combat uniform stepped out of the lead SUV, leveled his AK-47 assault rifle at them with a glare, and demanded, "What is your business here?"


	5. Chapter 4

As soon as the meeting with Director Fury had ended, Clint had sequestered himself in the Tower's shooting range with his modified M24 sniper rifle and a crate of ammunition. Although the range was only 50 feet long, Tony had created a special sniper setting to allow Clint to simulate a shot from any distance. A holographic projection system would build the environment in which Clint wanted to train, and a dedicated computer processor would calculate weather conditions and bullet trajectories. Clint would fire into a target block 25 feet in front of his position, and the range's sensors would analyze the bullet's trajectory. The computer would determine the path and display the result of the shot on the screen. It was accurate to within one inch at a range of over 1000 feet in any conceivable weather conditions.

Today, Clint had programmed the simulator to show the view from the top of Avengers Tower. JARVIS had randomly placed a dozen enemy snipers on rooftops with a view of the Tower, and Clint was trying to track all of them down and eliminate them before they eliminated him. The first sniper he found was the one who had killed the woman a few hours earlier.

Clint centered the sniper's featureless head in the crosshairs and pulled the trigger. He muttered a curse when the wind took the round wide to the right and it dropped to impact in the side of the building the man was lying on. The simulated sniper looked around wildly as soon as he "heard" the sound of the bullet firing and striking the building. Clint saw the sniper's blank simulated head look straight up at him through the scope, and he tried to reset and try again, this time accounting for wind and gravity.

_It's all my fault that this happened_, he thought as he calculated the proper trajectory. _I should have stayed until Tony left. If I had, he would not have been captured like this._

Clint ducked as the other sniper fired at him and missed by less than half an inch. He stuck his head back up and re-sighted through his scope before quickly pulling the trigger. The man's head exploded like a melon as the bullet tore into it through his scope.

_I knew something felt wrong about that mission from the beginning. I should have said something sooner; maybe that would have put Tony on guard. I should have _been_ there to help him_, Clint thought angrily as he emptied his magazine into the dead sniper's body. Fifteen bullets later, the body was an unrecognizable mess when Clint looked back at it through his scope. He pulled out the empty magazine and replaced it with another one.

* * *

Two hours later, Clint had "killed" sixty simulated snipers, and only been "killed" himself once. Of course, he didn't count that exception because JARVIS had played a trick on him and put thirteen snipers into the simulation instead of twelve.

Clint ran three miles on the indoor track a floor below the shooting range before returning to his quarters for a shower. After his shower, he put on a pair of jeans and casual black T-shirt before asking, "JARVIS, where is Tasha?"

"Agent Romanoff is in Ms. Potts' office on the Stark Industries administrative floor. Do you have a message for her?" came the prompt response.

"No, that's okay. I'll catch up with her at dinner."

* * *

At that moment, "Natalie Rushman" was sitting in one of the chairs in Pepper's office on the 110th floor of the tower. She held a cup of tea in her left hand and looked over at the other woman in the room, whose own cup was shaking almost imperceptibly in her grip.

"Thanks for coming to keep me company until this is over. Tony's been doing this for two years now, but I never get used to the helplessness I feel when he is off on a mission. And that's nothing compared to this feeling. I thought it was bad when I thought he had been killed in Afghanistan, but this is so much worse," Pepper said, tears coming from her eyes. "I don't know how you and Clint manage."

Natasha took a sip of her tea and thought for a moment. She slowly responded, "We don't always handle it well. Four years ago, when Clint went on his first mission without me after we had acted on our feelings for each other, I was a nervous wreck for the first day. Of course," she laughed, "no one noticed other than Phil!"

"You? Worried?" Pepper asked, surprised.

"Just because I'm so adept at _hiding_ all emotion doesn't mean I don't _have_ any!" Natasha smirked. "I was scared that Agent Morse wouldn't watch his back as well as I could. Of course, I didn't need to worry after all; the job took less than a day, neither of them was injured, and I was able to use some vacation time to meet up with Clint in Barcelona afterward. After that we both learned to accept it when we need to be separated for a mission. The only other time I worried about Clint was when he was in Loki's clutches."

"But that's understandable," Pepper observed. "If it were Tony, I would have been completely catatonic!"

"No, you wouldn't," Natasha said, shaking her head. "You are much stronger than that; I saw it at the Expo when you handled the dual blows of Vanko's attack and Tony's revelation without more than batting an eye. You would be able to handle something like that, just like you are able to keep the company running now with him captured."

Pepper gave the other redhead a weak, doubtful smile, but even still raised her cup in a toast.

* * *

Steve went down to the training floor the instant he had the chance. Before going there, however, he stopped on the living quarters floor and grabbed a couple of his special reinforced punching bags and a roll of tape for his hands from his room. With those things in hand, he got back on the elevator to ride it up one floor to train.

When he arrived, Steve attached one of the punching bags to a hook hanging from the ceiling on one side of the large boxing ring in the middle of the floor. He quickly and roughly taped his hands before dropping into his fighting stance and dancing around the bag.

_Stark's been captured, and we're stuck in here_, he thought, throwing his first punch at the bag. _A soldier never leaves a man behind, but that is exactly what I'm doing sitting around the Tower. I'm his commanding officer, and I've been sidelined_. He peppered the punching bag with more punches, ducking and dodging as he did so.

_We're all so _helpless_ here!_ He gave the punching bag his strongest punch yet. The bag flew off the hook and split open against the far wall, spilling sand everywhere. Steve walked over to where his other punching bag was leaning against the wall, grabbed it, and hooked it up with a sigh. _I go through these things like Bruce goes through shirts!_

* * *

Bruce was sitting at the workbench in his laboratory one floor below Tony's currently-unoccupied personal lab, peering intently into his microscope. He still didn't know what he was still doing in the Tower. He had only intended to stay for a few weeks before returning to India. But two weeks of playing in a fully-equipped laboratory and getting to know Tony Stark and James Rhodes (when he was around) had convinced him to stay for a few more weeks. Seven months later, he couldn't think of any other life than staying in the Tower, eating with the other Avengers, working in his lab, and listening to Tony's music come through the ceiling.

Music. He couldn't hear any today. Music only played when Tony was in his lab. Tony was the first person who had befriended him since the Other Guy came along. On the helicarrier he could tell that Tony was unafraid of the Hulk; everything he had done had been to draw Bruce out of his shell, and he hadn't stopped trying since. Of all the Tower inhabitants, Tony was the one Bruce felt most comfortable around. He actually found it somewhat soothing to hear Tony's music pounding through the ceiling; it meant someone he trusted, who would always have his back, was nearby. Tony reminded Bruce a bit of Betty, the only other person he'd ever met who was unafraid of the Hulk.

But now, like Betty (due to his own cowardice) Tony was gone. He had gone off on an easy mission, and a criminal psychopath had captured him and was planning to kill him. And there was nothing Bruce could do about it; if he even stepped out of the Tower, Tony would get blown to smithereens.

"Damn Justin Hammer!" Bruce shouted, punching the table in front of him. The microscope jumped an inch off the bench and tipped over on its side. Bruce didn't notice that; his sight had gone green. The Hulk roared, and Bruce knew no more.

* * *

Bruce woke up and saw Phil Coulson staring down at him. He glanced around him dumbly and saw that his workbench had been broken to pieces, along with the new electron microscope that had been sitting in the corner. But that was all the damage he could see. As his senses returned, he realized he was (as usual after a transformation) stark naked, but that he had been draped with a lab coat.

"I didn't think you would want to wake up naked," the android commented when he saw Bruce look down at his covered body. "Especially not naked with me standing over you. You might have transformed again!"

"What—what happened?" Bruce choked out.

"You Hulked out, obviously," Vision responded with a smirk. "I was nine floors down, walking around outside Ms. Potts' office, when JARVIS informed me that your heart rate had spiked. By the time I got up here, you had fully transformed, turned your table into firewood, and were using your electron microscope as a punching bag. I shot you with my Hulk Buster tranquilizer missile, but I guess the dosage needs to be increased, since it took you a couple minutes to fall unconscious, long enough to roar at me and stomp that giant dent in the floor." He gestured to a new Hulk-sized footprint embedded in the floor next to Bruce's head.

"But… _how_ did it happen?" Bruce wondered aloud, confused. "I haven't had an unintentional transformation since Loki, and I've been far better about keeping it under control since then."

"At a guess," observed Vision wryly, "you are worried about Mr. Stark. You said something about 'Metal Man' right before I shot you with the tranq. And that's not anything to be ashamed of; we're all worried."

"All the same, I _am_ ashamed that I lost control like that," Bruce said, carefully standing up and adjusting the lab coat to keep himself covered. "I remember thinking about what Tony did for me by befriending me and bringing me to live in the Tower, and then about how he is in trouble and I can't do anything for him. And that made me think of my lost love, whom I can't ever see again because I could hurt her. Just like when I transform, I am completely helpless."

"Director Fury is doing everything he can for Mr. Stark, and Lt. Col. Rhodes' team is going to rescue him," Vision said reassuringly. "But if you would like, I will stay here with you for a while for company. And if you transform again, I can knock you out again."

"You don't have anything else to do?" Bruce asked. "Considering that the Tower is under siege, I would've thought you'd be down in the lobby for security."

"No need," Vision said. He walked over to one of the storage cabinets, pulled open the door, and took out a set of clothes. He tossed them at Bruce and turned around. The other man began dressing himself. "My connection to the security cameras allows me to monitor everything in the lobby and outside the Tower without being there, and I suppose I don't need to worry about other threats too much with an entire assault team hidden just outside the entrance!"

"If you don't have anything else to do, I would certainly appreciate the company; the last time I was alone this long was before Agent Romanoff dropped in on me in India," Bruce told the android gratefully.

"I'll be here as long as you need me," Vision said comfortingly.


	6. Chapter 5

AN: I enjoy getting reviews.

* * *

"What is your business here?" the man demanded again, flicking off the safety on his AK-47 and pointing it directly at Luke Cage's chest.

Luke Cage forced himself to play the part of a terrified civilian. He looked up into the man's face, fear in his eyes. "Hey, man," he began, "I'm just passing through here with my buddy. We heard there's this awesome pizza joint on the other side of Harlem, and this looked like a quick shortcut. We don't want any trouble here."

"Pizza place? What's the name?" the man asked with a glare.

"It's Giordano's something, right, Danny?" Luke asked, looking back at his passenger as he said it.

"Yeah, Giordano's Pizza, I think," Danny replied, trying his best to look scared.

"Nice try," a voice said behind them. Danny swung his head around to look at the new speaker, a smaller man with a cruel face. "There's no Giordano's pizza place in the state."

"Are you sure? It's a new place," Luke tried.

"Yeah, so new it doesn't actually exist," the man behind them said with a cruel laugh, aiming his own AK-47 at them.

"Now answer the question: What is your business here?" the first man demanded. The barrel of his rifle was dangerously close to Luke's head by this point.

"Plan B, then," Luke muttered to Danny with an imperceptible nod. Danny suddenly grinned before placing his hands on Luke's shoulders. The two partners sprang into action simultaneously. Luke stood up to his full height and swung his leg over the motorcycle, the fear melting from his face as he did so, replaced by a mask of rage and raw anger. The force of his move pulled Danny up into the air as well. Danny jumped as Luke stood up, brought his knees in to his chest, and kicked out backward, pushing himself away from Luke's back as he did so. Danny twisted over in midair just before his feet connected with the chest of the startled man standing behind them, knocking him heavily to the ground. He landed in a catlike crouch over the man's prone form and began concentrating his chi energy in his right fist.

Luke Cage, meanwhile, had already wrestled the rifle out of the leader's stunned hands and used it to knock him unconscious. He turned the gun against the SUV in front of him, but thought better of simply hosing it down with lead. Instead he contented himself with breaking the front driver's side window with the stock of the gun and loosing a single round into the radio. The doors of the SUV swung open as the other occupants finally reacted and began to pour out and join the engagement.

* * *

Danny Rand looked up from his position crouching over the downed mercenary toward the SUV penning their motorcycle in from behind. A couple men had opened the doors to start leaving the vehicle. With a grin, Danny sprang toward the SUV, swinging his right fist down into the hood as he did so. The chi-infused blow caused the Suburban's back wheels to leave the ground and swing up over the front wheels. The vehicle's momentum carried it over onto its roof, which crumpled. The three men in the back row were all knocked unconscious when the vehicle connected with the ground. He heard the other four men groan; two were unable to move with their legs pinned, while the other two dragged themselves slowly out of the damaged vehicle through the windows. Danny placed first one and then the other of the men crawling out through the windows in a sleeper hold until they lost consciousness. Then he yanked the weapons out of the other two men's weak grasps and set them aside.

He looked behind him to see that the mercenaries from the lead SUV had climbed out and had his partner encircled. He shook his head and stifled a laugh, but ran over to the small crowd anyways. As soon as he reached them, he put his hands on a mercenary's shoulders and used the man as a spring to vault over the crowd. Just before letting go, he shifted his right hand over a few inches and squeezed a pressure point. The man didn't even have a chance to shout before he fell to the ground unconscious. Danny tucked into a flip and landed upright next to Luke. The two moved to stand back to back, staring at the six men standing around them with guns pointed at their chests.

"How do you want to play this?" Danny muttered under his breath, turning his head slightly to the right.

"Remember that kidnapper on Centennial last year? Let's do that," Luke answered.

"Works for me."

Danny charged the man standing directly in front of him. The man tried to crouch into a defensive stance, but Danny sidestepped to the right and chopped him twice in the side as he passed. The man winced and was thrown off guard. As soon as he was behind the man, he dropped to the ground and swung his left leg around, taking the gunman's legs out from under him. He fell backward toward Danny, who was lying on his back and had already brought both feet together and bent them at the knees. He kicked into the man's back with both feet, sending him flying through the air toward Luke.

Luke had turned to watch his partner's progress out of the corner of his eye as soon as he felt Danny move. When Danny kicked his man toward him, Luke reached out a hand and caught the man by both legs in his right fist. With a roar, Luke swung the man around in the same motion, knocking out the remaining five gunmen with their comrade's body. He dropped his human club in a miserable heap on top of two of his teammates' unconscious bodies.

The two Heroes for Hire quickly checked the sixteen men to make sure none were conscious or close to consciousness. As soon as they were satisfied, they zip-tied each man's hands and legs and laid them in a row on the sidewalk. Then Luke called Agent Hill to report in.

"Power Man calling Agent Hill, authorization MH-1972, do you copy?"

"What is it Luke?" Hill responded instantly.

"Iron Fist and I kind of ran into a snag."

"What kind of a 'snag'?" she asked dubiously.

"The kind that involves two Suburbans full of guys with AK-47s," Luke replied calmly.

"Status report," Hill commanded, shaking her head with a groan.

"They're all unconscious and zip-tied, and one of their SUVs is upside down."

"Did they manage to get a warning out?" she demanded.

"Negative; I think we took them too much by surprise for them to warn anyone. But we believe we are getting close to the location where they are keeping Iron Man, so we can't exactly stay here and babysit a bunch of unconscious guys," Luke answered.

"Okay, I'll send a team of agents from the New York field office to take care of them. They will be there in under five minutes."

"In rush hour traffic?"

"Just wait for them," Hill said tiredly.

* * *

"You know, if anyone from the mercenary group came down this street right now, he'd know they have a problem at a single glance," Luke said as soon as he disconnected the communicator.

"We have a few minutes; let's see what we can do to get the street cleaned up before those S.H.I.E.L.D. types get here," Danny responded.

While they waited for the S.H.I.E.L.D. team's arrival, Luke carefully turned the upside down SUV over and placed it back on its wheels. He pushed the vehicle back into the parking space it had been sitting in before they came down the street. Danny used chi-infused blows to smooth out the dents in the hood and roof as much as he could, while Luke pushed the other SUV into its parking space. Finally, they brushed as much shattered glass off the road as they could.

Four minutes and thirty-seven seconds after they had talked to Agent Hill, Danny was astonished to see three black Honda SUVs hover down the street toward them from the west. They slowly settled to the ground as the two small air foils on each side of the vehicles rotated 90 degrees and became wheels. Two S.H.I.E.L.D. agents dressed in black suits stepped out of each vehicle and brusquely nodded to the two Avengers.

"We replaced the two Suburbans, so if someone casually glances down the street, he won't see anything amiss. Unfortunately, that won't help too much if they take a closer look," Luke reported, gesturing toward the vehicles in question.

"That won't be a problem," the lead agent responded, pulling a kit from the back of his S.H.I.E.L.D.-standard (manufactured by Stark Industries and Honda Motor Company) Flying Utility Vehicle and striding purposefully over to the most damaged Suburban. Without even glancing again at the two heroes, the other five agents quickly began loading the unconscious gunmen into the back of their vehicles.

Satisfied that S.H.I.E.L.D. had the situation under control, the Heroes for Hire climbed back onto their motorcycle and sped off.

* * *

"Power Man and Iron Fist just had an altercation with some of Justin Hammer's mercenaries," Agent Hill announced to the rest of Team B through their quinjet's radio.

"What happened?" War Machine demanded.

"They didn't say exactly, but it sounded like they were following a lead and sprang a trap that had been set for anyone searching for Stark."

"Are they all right?" Danvers asked.

"They're fine; I think either of them could take on sixteen mercenaries singlehandedly and not have more than a couple scratches to show for it!" Hill observed wryly.

"Did the ambush element get a chance to report what was happening?" Rhodes asked, worried their cover had been blown already.

"Cage and Rand do not think so; they think their attack was swift enough and sudden enough that the mercenaries never saw it coming."

"Good," Rhodes said, sitting back down as the quinjet began its descent into small Westchester County Airport. Director Fury had called in a favor to have the airport shut down temporarily with a "fire equipment malfunction" so the quinjet could land covertly. Danvers expertly maneuvered the plane to hover next to the hangar farthest away from the terminal. As soon as its forward momentum stopped, she landed the quinjet smoothly on the tarmac. It was barely on the ground before a S.H.I.E.L.D. ground crew ran out of the hangar and started wheeling the jet inside and away from prying eyes.

As soon as the jet was safely inside the hangar, Rhodes turned to his team and said, "We're less than 22 miles from Harlem now, and Tony's got to be near there; that trap Cage and Rand sprang confirms it. We'll split up and search the area. Ms. Marvel, Ant-Man, and I will search from the air, but we need to be careful not to be seen—you've got your scanner, right, Marvel?"

"Affirmative," Danvers answered, pulling a small black box out of its holster on her utility belt and turning it on. The screen glowed faintly before she switched it off again and returned it to its place on her utility belt.

Rhodey nodded and turned to the other woman on the team. "Mockingbird, you, Power Man, and Iron Fist will search from the ground. Stay in constant radio contact and do not investigate any buildings alone. Let's get going."

Scott Lang activated the Pym Particles on his belt and shrank down to the size of an ant. A wasp flew into the quinjet through the open loading ramp, and Scott jumped on its back and flew out through the opening. Carol Danvers looked over at Bobbi Morse, who nodded to her. The two women walked down the loading ramp out of the quinjet side by side. As soon as they were out, Carol looped her arms under Bobbi's shoulders and pushed off from the ground. Rhodey followed the other members of his team as they all flew toward Harlem to begin the search, staying as close to the ground as possible.


	7. Chapter 6

AN: Thanks to Qweb for reviewing the last chapter. Also, thanks to geekychic1999 and Sargerogue who reviewed previously.

* * *

"I think this is the building," Mockingbird reported the next morning. The team had searched all night, and Mockingbird had been transfixed by this block for the past hour.

She was sitting outside a coffee shop along Harlem River Drive and pretending to read a newspaper while sipping a latte and nibbling on a cinnamon scone. For this part of the mission, Bobbi had changed into a casual pair of dark blue jeans and silver blouse that accentuated her blond hair, rather than walking around Harlem in her standard black S.H.I.E.L.D. catsuit. A bag of new clothes sat next to her chair. To any observer she looked like a normal woman doing some early shopping who had stopped for a drink and a snack.

Her batons were hidden in her purse, along with a Lady Smith 9mm revolver and combat knife. She was observing the abandoned warehouse across the street from her position using her peripheral vision. She glanced down at the display screen on the scanning device hidden behind her newspaper, which was pointed at the warehouse. "I see the same black town car that Iron Fist described sitting outside, along with a pair of black Suburbans. There are enough heat signatures in the building for a small army. This has got to be the place."

"Okay, Bird. Wait for the rest of us before investigating any closer," War Machine ordered.

"Got it, boss. I'll just sit here and drink some more espresso on S.H.I.E.L.D.'s dime," Mockingbird smirked.

Out of the corner of her eye, Bobbi watched as Ms. Marvel alighted on the roof next to her coffee shop. Carol laughed when she saw Bobbi's surveillance position and said into the comm. system, "Do you really need to feed your shopping _and_ caffeine addictions any more, Bobbi?"

"You're just jealous because I got to take a nice stroll around the neighborhood, admire the sights, do some shopping, and drink coffee while you were flying in circles, Carol! I'd offer to trade, but I sadly can't fly" Bobbi joked back.

"You can't fly, but your codename is 'Mockingbird,'" Ms. Marvel bantered back. "I think you need to change that: 'Mocking Kiwi,' maybe."

Bobbi didn't get a chance to respond, because at that moment a black and silver motorcycle pulled into the parking lot of the office building next to her location, and Power Man got off and started casually walking over to the coffee shop. She had to take a second look when Iron Fist seemingly materialized out of thin air on the sidewalk in front of the warehouse; he had slipped out of an alleyway between it and the warehouse next door when she wasn't looking.

"I'm holding station just inside the cloud cover," War Machine said. "The rest of you can blend in; I can't. Is everyone there?"

"I see everyone except Ant-Man," Mockingbird reported, her eyes darting around the street looking for her strangely-dressed friend.

"You wouldn't see me, would you? And anyways, you're looking everywhere except at me," Ant-Man said in the radio. "Look down."

Bobbi turned and looked down at her plate, where she saw an unusual sight. A wasp was standing next to the plate motionless. On the edge of the plate, however, she saw a tiny man in red and black spandex wearing an unusual oversized helmet with antennae protruding from the top. The visor of the helmet was up, and she could just barely see the man's face. Scott Lang was lounging on the edge of the plate and calmly munching on a crumb left over from Bobbi's scone and looking up at her with a smirk.

"I must say, I love the view from down here," he began, "though not half so much as my view on the _way_ down here!"

"Don't make me squash you!" Bobbi said threateningly, raising her hand over him, though there wasn't any force behind the threat.

"Please don't," Rhodey joked. "That would mean paperwork, and you know how much I hate paperwork! Plus, then we'd need to break in a new team member…"

"Are we going to do this, or just stand around here?" Danny said impatiently, bouncing slightly on the balls of his feet.

"Right; on to business. Fist and Bird, go in and check out the inside of the warehouse. The rest of us will be outside to provide backup," Rhodey ordered.

Bobbi arose from the table and carefully crossed the street to join Danny outside the front door to the warehouse. For the benefit of anyone watching from inside the building, she greeted him with a brief embrace like they were old friends, and leaned back against the door as though to have a conversation. She was about to pick the lock behind her back, and already had her lock pick tools halfway to the door when Scott shouted, "Wait!"

"What is it now?" she demanded forcefully. The tools stopped just outside the lock.

"Anyone else think we found this place too fast?" Lang asked urgently.

"What do you mean?" Danvers asked, a note of doubt in her voice.

"Hammer just _happened_ to mention Harlem in a message to a group of highly intelligent superheroes-slash-government agents? Careless, don't you think? Even if the Avengers couldn't leave the tower, he had to know they would share the message with people outside it; he was counting on it to get out of jail. And then Lukey and Danny just _happened_ to run into a couple men in a convenience store talking about guarding a prisoner whose team is trapped in a tower? Hammer works with professionals, not the sort of thug who complains about his job in a public area. Then the very car those men drove just _happens_ to be parked outside a warehouse on the edge of Harlem, along with a couple vehicles of a model that the enemy is known to favor? It's all too sloppy for anything Justin Hammer would plan," Lang listed off.

"You think we were made?" Danny asked, his voice somewhere between fear and anger.

"There's the possibility; all of us were on the news after the Chitauri invasion, though they never got any good pictures of our team." Danny scowled at that. "But you weren't necessarily made. I think Hammer is smart enough to have set up a trap just in case someone goes looking for Stark. And then he must have sent out his guys to lure potential rescuers into the trap," Scott responded quickly.

The other five Avengers thought for a moment. Bobbi's and Danny's eyes met before they both glanced at the door. Bobbi took a step away from the door and shook her head at Danny. "What do you propose, Ant-Man?" Rhodey said heavily, breaking the silence a moment later.

"Let me go in first with some insects. If it is a trap, I should be able to figure it out without setting it off. If it isn't, I can scout the building out without even needing to open the front door," Lang said, already jumping off Bobbi's abandoned plate and onto the back of his wasp. The wasp took off immediately and flew across the street toward the warehouse.

"Do it," Rhodey said. "But I want constant status reports. Tell us everything."

"Yes, sir, Mr. War Machine, sir," Scott responded, throwing a mock salute before becoming all business. Concentrating on his helmet, Scott located a colony of ants dug into the corner of the warehouse. He ordered them to start searching the ground level of the warehouse. Meanwhile, he found a swarm of mosquitoes hovering over the river, which he commanded to follow him into the warehouse through a cracked window.

"The inside of the warehouse is extremely dark," he reported. "Something doesn't quite feel right in here. How many heat signatures did you detect on the scanners?"

"Twenty-one," Danvers answered. "Why?"

"It's dead silent in here. Even if one of them is a bound prisoner, twenty guys would make some noise moving around. And considering who the prisoner is, I would be surprised if he _wasn't_ chattering constantly." Scott, his mount, and his army of mosquitoes flew down lower into the warehouse. He glanced around uneasily. "The mosquitoes would pick up if there were anything in here to feed on, but they haven't found a thing."

At that moment, Scott picked up a dim form in the darkness below him, in the middle of the floor. It was surrounded by twenty similar forms, none of which were moving. With a sinking feeling in his stomach, Scott realized exactly what it was. "Decoys," he reported. "They set up twenty-one thermal decoys in here to fool our sensors into thinking there's a small army inside guarding a prisoner!"

"Get out now," Rhodey ordered urgently. "They've got to have something nasty in there."

"They do," Scott responded, looking more closely at the front door. "There's a claymore rigged to the front door on an electrical circuit trigger. I bet if Bird had tried picking the lock, the rake would have closed the circuit and set off the mine, and we'd be picking up pieces of Bird and Fist all over Harlem."

Bobbi shifted anxiously outside when she heard how close she had come to death. Beside her, she felt the tension emanating off of Danny as he realized the same thing. He muttered a curse. "Yes, yes, thank you for saving my life. Now get out of there," Bobbi urged him through the communicator.

"Not yet. They were here to set up their trap, so they may have left something behind," Scott responded. "And I'm touched by your concern," he added with a smirk. He thought he could hear Bobbi rolling her eyes through the radio.

Ant-Man flew closer to the ring of thermal decoys, inspecting them more closely. They looked like the mannequins such as you would see in clothing stores, set up in various poses; some as though they held rifles, others with a fist raised as if to strike their "prisoner." However, they all had electrical cords coming out of their left feet that were plugged into a long extension cord. The closer he got to the decoys, the more heat he felt radiating off of them. "The electricity in here is on."

"So?" asked Luke.

"So someone must be paying for it," Scott responded hurriedly.

Rhodey took up his train of thought, "And that means a paper trail. JARVIS, hack the electric company and find out how the utilities bill for this supposedly abandoned building is being paid."

"_We can do that from the Tower_," Steve Rogers' voice spoke over the radio system for the first time.

"Cap? What are _you_ doing?" Rhodey asked, nearly startled out of the air.

"_Sitting on our hands, doing nothing. Same as you seven months ago; I don't know how you could stand it! Hawkeye has barely left the training floors since we talked to Fury yesterday, and I just got done with my fourth training session in two days. JARVIS told me you had something, so I've been monitoring your comm. frequency from the command center. I'll get Dr. Banner started on cracking the utilities company's electronic security system right away_," Steve replied.

"Roger that," Rhodey said.

"_Funny_."

While the two team leaders bantered on the radio, Ant-Man noticed something odd about the floor. He urged his mount to dip down closer to the floor to check it out. "What do the scanners detect below the warehouse?" he asked.

"Nothing," Bobbi responded immediately with a glance at the still-activated scanner resting on top of the things in her purse. "I'm right next to it, and the scanner picks up nothing; the temperature is identical to the ground around the building."

"Heat shielding," Scott realized. "The floor in here is metal, not cement, and I can see a tiny seam in it; I bet there are hinges somewhere, too. There's someone under there. We need to get in and find out who it is and what they know."

His wasp landed on the floor, and Scott began to dismount. As soon as his mount's rear feet touched the ground, however, the floor seemed to explode in a blazing inferno, and Scott could barely hear himself screaming over the thunder of the explosion. His helmet was filled with the agonizing screams of dying ants, mosquitoes, and a wasp.

* * *

Mockingbird and Iron Fist, standing just outside the warehouse, were thrown backward into the street by the concussive force of the explosion. Bobbi landed heavily on her back. Her ears were ringing, and she could feel someone grab her arm and start dragging her. Through a fuzzy haze, she saw a black-and-blond streak fly past her directly into the rapidly-expanding explosion.

* * *

AN: Before people get upset with me for killing off Wasp, I actually didn't. A wasp that Scott discovered in Harlem and used as a mount died. If you read Avengers Plan B, you should remember that both Pyms are currently retired, and Janet is driving Hank crazy with her spending. In my universe, she never really picked a new Wasp, or at least not yet…


	8. Chapter 7

AN: Thanks to Qweb and Linzerj who reviewed last chapter. Also thanks to those who have gone back and read and reviewed my other stories; I'm glad to see that people enjoy how I've tried to expand the Marvel universe by fitting more Marvel characters into the movie universe.

* * *

As soon as she heard the explosion in the warehouse start, Carol Danvers leapt from the roof she was crouching on and shot toward the warehouse's buckling wall even before the claymore detonated and threw Danny and Bobbi back into the street. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Danny Rand pulling a motionless Bobbi Morse out of the middle of the street and into the shelter provided by a blue sedan parked in front of the warehouse. Blood poured from a gash on her forehead.

Carol couldn't dwell on her concern for her friend for very long however, because at that moment she flew into the explosion emanating from the warehouse.

* * *

"Ant-Man!" Rhodey shouted as his heads-up display turned into a rapidly-expanding white circle from the intensity of the explosion beneath him. "What's happening? Mockingbird? Iron Fist? Anyone? Status report!?"

"The warehouse exploded," Luke reported, panic in his voice. "Fist and Bird were thrown into the street when it happened. Fist is moving, but Mockingbird seems pretty dazed; she hit her head pretty bad."

"I'm coming down," Rhodey decided. "What about Ant-Man?"

"Stay there: I can pass as an innocent bystander; you're unmistakably an Avenger. Ant-Man was still inside when it blew. Marvel flew into the building right as it blew. That's all I know. I'm on my way already to help Fist and Bird," Luke said, running across the street as he did so.

_I'm _always_ the helpless bystander!_ Rhodey thought angrily. Nevertheless, he stayed hidden in the clouds, recognizing the wisdom in Luke's suggestion.

As he reached the car that Danny and Bobbi were sheltering behind, Luke saw that Danny had Bobbi's head in his lap and was using a bandana to put pressure on the still-bleeding cut on her forehead. Luke pulled his water bottle out of his leather jacket and tossed it to Danny, who caught it one-handed. He twisted the cap off and took a swig before pouring a small trickle into Bobbi's mouth. When she swallowed and opened her eyes, he poured a little more in. Satisfied that his two teammates would be okay, Luke turned to look at the warehouse.

* * *

As soon as she reached the edge of the explosive force, Carol began concentrating on absorbing the energy into her own body. More and more energy entered her instead of expending itself in destroying the warehouse or setting it on fire. By the time she reached the place where Ant-Man had landed, the explosion had fizzled out and she had absorbed more energy than she ever had before. She felt tiny wisps escaping.

"I—I've got it," she gasped, nearly bent double with the effort of keeping the energy in.

"You've got what?" Rhodey demanded instantly.

"The ex—explosion," she choked out. "I sucked in all—all the energy from it." Her enhanced vision spied Ant-Man lying prone on the ground next to the charred remains of a wasp, just in front of where she was crouching. She reached over and gently picked him up. She could see that he was still breathing, and she slipped him into a pouch on her belt. "I can't contain the energy much longer, though," she said with a cry of pain.

Rhodey's heads-up display resolved itself and showed him everything that was happening below him. Ms. Marvel's comm. signal was standing in the middle of the warehouse, and there was a powerfully intense energy reading coming off of Ms. Marvel, over ten times the War Machine suit's standard power level. Mockingbird, Iron Fist, and Power Man were all huddled together just outside the warehouse's location, though the pulse readings on Mockingbird and Iron Fist were both elevated. Ant-Man's comm. signal was nowhere to be found. He could also see heat signatures beneath the warehouse.

"The explosion must have damaged the heat shielding on the warehouse floor," Rhodey reported. "I see thirty heat signatures directly beneath you. Let all the energy out directly at the warehouse floor."

"What?" Carol said, so astonished she nearly lost control of the swirling energy racing through her body. A few tiny blue tendrils appeared from her fingertips as she struggled to retain mastery over it.

"You have to let it out, and letting it out any other way would attract unwanted attention. Shoot it directly at the floor and you can cut through the shielding protecting the people beneath you," Rhodey ordered.

Just when she thought she wouldn't be able to control the energy surging through her any more, Carol pointed her hands at the ground in front of her, took a deep breath, and screamed as she finally let all of the energy course out of her body from her hands in two bright blue beams, each wider and thicker than her own midsection. Instantly she felt the pressure that had been pushing at her body from within start to ease. She sighed with relief.

The metal plate covering the warehouse floor rapidly began to melt under the intense fire coming from Carol's hands. As she melted through she began expanding the opening. By this time Luke Cage had broken his way into the building and was standing at her side. A dozen men with AK-47s attempted to charge up the stairs out of their no-longer-hidden bunker, but were incinerated instantly by the intensity of the energy Carol was still emitting. By this time she had expended about 80% of the energy she had absorbed, and decided she could control the rest. The blue energy beams faded away as she let out the breath she had not realized she had taken. She leaned to her right and nearly fell over before Luke caught her and helped her sit down on the floor just to the side of the trapdoor.

Once he was sure Carol was okay, Luke walked over to the melted hole in the floor and looked inside. He saw eighteen men lying on the floor motionless, assault rifles clutched in limp hands. He jumped down through the opening and felt the residual heat emanating from the floor and walls, even through the insulated soles of his combat boots. He put two fingers to the neck of one man and felt for a pulse. Once he felt a weak pulse under his fingertips, he moved on to the next man. A few minutes later he confirmed that all eighteen had survived, but those closest to the entrance had been very badly burned.

"Boss, these eighteen are still alive, but unconscious. It may be a while before we get anything useful out of them. A couple are in pretty bad shape," Luke reported.

"Any sign of Scott?"

"I don't see him anywhere."

"I'm on it," Rhodey responded. "War Machine to Agent Hill."

"Hill here," Maria responded instantly.

"We have unconscious enemy combatants in need of medical attention, and one of my team members is MIA."

"Is Stark okay?" the S.H.I.E.L.D. agent asked.

"No idea. He wasn't here," Rhodes answered flippantly to mask his anger, frustration, and concern for his friend.

"But enemy combatants were."

"That is correct."

"And someone disappeared."

"Yes."

"I'm guessing there's a story behind this. War Machine, what happened?" Hill asked tiredly.

"This whole building was a set up. Ant-Man went in to investigate because he didn't think he would set off any traps. Unfortunately, he set off a trap; the whole floor must have exploded when he put his tiny weight on it. I do not know where he is. Mockingbird and Iron Fist were injured in the explosion, though not severely. Marvel absorbed nearly all of the explosive energy, and used it to melt into the hidden bunker under the warehouse, which hopefully prevented anyone from noticing that the warehouse blew up. The heat was so intense that everyone in the bunker who survived passed out. Hence, we have unconscious enemy combatants to worry about," Rhodey reported quickly.

"Copy that. The team from the local field office is already en route to your position," Agent Hill responded. "They're getting a lot of work today."

"And none of it has gotten us any closer to Tony."

"We'll find him, Rhodes. See to your injuries and try to find your missing man. Hill out."

* * *

By this time Bobbi's ears had stopped ringing and she was able to sit up. Numbly she gave Danny a grateful nod to thank him for pulling her to safety and slowing the bleeding cut on her forehead. When she had been flung backward, she had dropped her purse; it was still lying in front of the warehouse's charred door. She looked up as Carol walked out of the building unsteadily, with Luke holding her upright with his left arm. Carol noticed the purse as she passed, and stooped to pick it up. It took her an unusually long time to right herself and continue walking toward where Danny and Bobbi still sat behind their makeshift shelter

Bobbi reached out and grabbed her purse from Carol as soon as the other was close enough. She pulled it open and checked to make sure everything was inside. The scanner had been smashed in the fall, but everything else seemed undamaged. She pulled her compact first aid kit out of the purse and opened it on the ground in front of her. For the first time, she felt the headache that was blossoming from where she had hit her head on the pavement. There was nothing else she could do about it in the field, so she contented herself with three ibuprofen tablets before moving on to bandage her teammates.

Luke had been on the other side of the street, and had come out of the ordeal relatively unscathed. Danny's injuries all looked superficial, and even now his scraped left knee was knitting itself together before her eyes. In a few minutes, the only evidence of the scrape would be the torn hole in his cargo pants. Carol didn't exhibit traces of any physical injuries; the "incident" in New Mexico had given her powerful invulnerability and healing factors, in addition to the ability to fly and absorb and emit energy. Carol's only "injury" was weakness from her difficult struggle to control the incredible amount of energy she had absorbed from the explosion. Bobbi dug around in her purse to find the bottle of Gatorade she kept in there. She pulled it out, unsealed the cap, dropped in an energy tablet, screwed the cap back on, and tossed it over to Carol. The other woman nearly missed the bottle, but just barely managed to catch it. She downed half the contents in a single gulp.

"I nearly forgot," Carol said as she felt the weakness vanish, "I found Scott in there."

Bobbi attributed the fact that she hadn't even remembered Scott Lang had been in the warehouse when it exploded to the concussion whose effects she was only now becoming aware of. "You found him?" she asked. "Where is he? Is he okay?"

"He was unconscious but breathing; I had other things on my mind at the time, so I just put him in one of the pouches on my belt to keep him safe. Here he is," Carol replied, reaching into the pouch that normally would have housed her scanning device, which was lying forgotten on the roof across the street. She tenderly extracted Scott Lang's prone form from the pouch and laid it on the ground. He was mostly black from soot, though some had rubbed off in Carol's pouch, letting the red on his front show through. Finding the button to deactivate the Pym Particles that controlled his transformation, she pressed it gently, careful not to damage him or his suit further.

Scott's body slowly began to expand and return to its normal size. As it did, the extent of his injuries became apparent to those huddling around him. Luke had to move when Scott's legs got long enough to bump into him. As he did so, he saw the edges of burns along the sides of his legs, hinting at the massive burned patches on the backs of his legs. Looking critically at his torso, Bobbi could see that his back was in a similar condition.

"It looks like all the damage is on the backs of his legs and torso," Bobbi announced after taking a minute to examine the rest of his body. "We'll need to roll him over if I'm going to treat it. I'll stabilize his head if the rest of you will roll him on my count."

Carol, Danny, and Luke all obeyed their team medic without question and moved so they were kneeling on Scott's right side. At a signal from Bobbi, they rolled him over onto his chest while Bobbi held his neck steady, revealing the second-degree burns running all the way down the length of his back. His calves and butt were covered in third-degree burns.

"Damn," Bobbi muttered. Louder, she said, "I have some burn ointment, but it won't do anything on a burn this bad or this extensive. There's not much I can do for him here; he needs a fully-staffed burn unit. It's too bad the suit doesn't give him any protection like you have, Carol."

"I wonder if I can do anything for him," Carol said, looking down at her hands.

"What do you mean?" Luke asked curiously.

"I've only ever used my energy abilities to hurt; what if I can use it to give Scott some of my regenerative abilities to heal the burn?"

"No," Bobbi shook her head. "We have no idea if it would work, and in this state, he wouldn't survive if something went wrong. We can try testing that after this mission is over; for now we need to get him to a hospital."

"I'm on it," War Machine suddenly cut in. He dropped from the sky in front of them all, gingerly lifted his injured team member, and shot forward at his fastest possible speed, following the river to the ocean, and eventually down to the helicarrier's location in the Chesapeake Bay.


	9. Chapter 8

AN: Thanks to Qweb who reviewed last chapter. Also, thank you to those who have followed or favorited this story.

AN: All of the facts from this chapter come from Wikipedia or my educated guess. If you have suggestions to improve accuracy, let me know in a message or review, and I will make the appropriate correction.

* * *

Clint was training in the shooting range yet again, using his new favorite scenario. Once again, JARVIS had randomly placed a dozen enemy snipers on rooftops, and Clint was trying to track all of them down and eliminate them before they eliminated him. As usual, the first sniper he found was the faceless man who had killed the woman at the beginning of this nightmarish siege.

"Mr. Dragunov, I presume," he muttered under his breath for the 143rd time as the crosshairs in his scope settled on the man's head. He ran some quick calculations, glanced at the American flag to the man's right, turned the rifle a few inches to the left, and pulled the trigger. Almost as soon as the bullet had left the barrel, he shifted his aim half an inch and fired again. He looked back at the enemy sniper and saw his head explode as the first bullet entered it. His spotter suffered a similar fate an instant later. Clint smirked and returned to scanning rooftops.

The next sniper was about 100 feet from the front entrance of Avengers Tower on top of an apartment building. Clint quickly shot off two bullets to kill him and his spotter.

A minute later, Clint had to pause for a moment when he saw his third target. This man was on the roof of a department store half a mile from the Tower's rear maintenance door. However, his view of the door was obstructed by a high-rise a block away. "That guy's in the wrong position," Clint said to himself. "If he were one building over, he'd have a clear line-of-sight to that maintenance door, and be able to cover every window on that side of the Tower."

Clint shrugged and popped off two shots before moving on to his next target.

But the next target was also poorly placed: He could not see a single tower entrance from his location. "There's no way anyone sets up there," Clint noted, getting a little annoyed at the simulator.

Suddenly, he was struck by inspiration. He grinned and said, "I could track down every single one of those snipers without leaving the tower!" He stood up to leave the range, but before he could, his vest vibrated with the impact of nine simulated sniper rounds.

"JARVIS, end simulation," he called. The view from the Tower faded away, replaced by the sterile white walls of the shooting range.

Clint quickly pulled off the simulator vest, then cleaned and stored away his sniper rifle. When he had done so, he walked to the elevator bay. "JARVIS," he said, "send Vision to the Avengers administration floor, and ask Cap to meet us there. Agent Romanoff is still with Pepper, right?"

"Affirmative."

"Let her know I have an idea to break the siege, but that I may need her help."

"Yes, Agent Barton. The VISION android and Captain Rogers are both on their way."

* * *

"I was already up here monitoring Team B's progress. They haven't had any luck, but they just got banged up pretty good in an explosion," Steve explained as soon as the other man had stepped out of the elevator and walked into the large command center that took up half the floor. "So what's so urgent, Clint?" Vision stood next to him, looking similarly puzzled.

"They got banged up?" Clint asked, his idea temporarily forgotten. "What happened?"

"A trap. Mockingbird and Iron Fist got shook up pretty badly, but Ant-Man was in the middle of it. They're treating him on the helicarrier, but that's all I know," Steve reported. Clint winced imperceptibly; he'd worked with Scott Lang on several missions before. "Anyways, what's so urgent?"

Clint quickly got back to business. "I was down in the range when I realized that between the three of us, we probably have all the information we need to hunt down the troops pinning us down in here. Your officer training included various assault tactics, right?" Clint asked.

"Well, I didn't exactly have _formal_ officer training; I went from propaganda monkey to special ops captain a little too fast for that! But Col. Phillips did give me a correspondence course on tactics and leadership," Steve said wryly. "Everything else I kind of learned on the fly."

"That and years of World War II service should be all you need for this job," Clint said. "You might not know this, Cap, but your Howling Commandoes formed the pattern for all future U.S. Special Operations Groups; even my Rangers got a makeover after the war. Tony has the most extensive military science database in the world, and I assume you have access to it, Vision?"

"Of course," the android said. Suddenly, realization dawned on him. "I see what you're up to: We'll look at this as though we were going to plan an assault on the tower, and use those parameters to track down Hammer's forces."

"Exactly," Clint said, nodding. "The two of you have all the knowledge we need to track down the assault force and rocket and SAM teams. And if there are more than five people in the world who know more about sniper tactics than me, I'll swallow an arrow. I think we can do this."

"Then let's get to work," Steve said enthusiastically, his previous anger and helplessness completely forgotten. "JARVIS, pull up a holographic map of New York City and highlight a one-mile radius around the Tower."

"Vision, I want you to start running facial recognition on every person shown on every camera we've gotten access to. Go back to a week before the capture and look for any patterns of people who start showing up too often in unusual locations. Create files for everyone, and group all the military-age men together. JARVIS, do the same thing with vehicles, grouping them by size and type," Clint instructed next. To Steve's questioning look, he explained, "Just knowing _where_ they are won't do us any good if we can't determine _who_ they are. Even with Vision's and JARVIS' processors, it will take a while to go through that much data."

"Okay, so where do we begin?" Steve asked, looking at the holographic scale model of New York City on the table in front of them.

"Let's handle sniper perches first," Clint decided. "This is the building Mr. Dragunov shot that woman from, so we'd better check that one first, though he's probably moved by now." JARVIS highlighted the building in question in blue. "When I was in the Rangers, we would typically have a pair of snipers for every target area. I expect that Hammer's mercs read from the same playbook, though they might have five assigned to every target area."

"Why's that?"

"There are five of us when Thor is here, and they've got to know that if they don't take us all out simultaneously they don't have a chance of taking us all out. And few snipers can take out multiple targets that quickly," Clint responded simply.

"Okay, so we're looking for between two and five sniper perches for every possible exit from the Tower," Steve said.

"The Tower has six exits," Jarvis supplied. "The front door on the south side, the maintenance door on the north side, and emergency exits in the middle of the east and west sides. Then there are the two exits from the subterranean parking garage on the north and south sides one block from the tower."

"Project the line-of-sight from each of those exits out to a range of two miles. Then put in concentric rings around the tower a half-mile, one mile, and two miles from the tower. Shade all the buildings in the closest section red, those in the middle one green, and those in the farthest one yellow," Clint ordered, already scanning the various sectors.

"Why did you do that?" Steve asked, giving the sniper a confused look.

"Half a mile is too close for most snipers to be very effective, cover multiple entrances, and the like; and a mile is too far, though well within range. The ideal distance for a sniper staking out a stationary target like a building is between a half-mile and a full mile from the target. Most of the snipers will be in the green ring, with a number in the yellow and red ones as well. Beyond the yellow ring is too far for all but the most skilled snipers to hit a target accurately," Clint explained. "Now darken the buildings in those wedges with a view of multiple exits."

By now the map was crisscrossed with different shaded regions. Clint scanned it quickly, nodding to himself occasionally. "We're looking for buildings or windows with a clear view of the entrance, nothing in the way. Take out every building that does not have an unobstructed view of the Tower. It's a good thing traffic is so unpredictable; it means we don't need to worry about snipers on ground level. JARVIS, hack the traffic helicopters and get me an aerial view of the highlighted buildings. Focus especially on the dark green ones. Next get schematics of the buildings in question. Look for windows with a clear view of the Tower.

"That's enough to get us started on the snipe hunt," Clint said to Steve, glancing over the diagram thoughtfully. "Which shall we do next: rocket launcher teams or SAM teams?"

"Let's start with the rocket launchers," Steve answered.

"JARVIS, save this diagram and show us a new map of the City. Vision, what's the maximum range for the Javelin missile?" Clint asked.

"2500 meters, though there is a developmental variant with a 3000-meter range," Vision answered promptly.

"Are there any man-portable rockets with a longer range than that?"

"Not that I can find."

"We'd better be on the safe side and increase it to a 3500-meter range," Clint decided. "JARVIS, project the line-of-sight from each of the parking garage exits out to a range of 3500 meters." Two wedges materialized on the map spreading out from the north and south sides of the Tower.

"Cap, where would you set up your anti-tank missiles if you needed them?"

"Typically we wanted them to be pretty close to the target, especially if we knew where it would be coming from," he answered slowly. "If it was a high-value target and I had time and resources to play with, I would set up a pair of teams on opposite sides of the entrance, just in case there were any surprises: You don't need to take the shot right away, and if the first team misses, the target will probably reverse course and run straight into the other team."

"They won't want to let us get very far from the Tower because distance increases the number of variables. Odds are they will be set up somewhere along these streets," Clint concluded, pointing at the streets one block north and south of the tower. "Now, _how_ would you set them up in this environment, Cap?"

"They need some kind of cover since they are so noticeable. Perhaps a building, though the same window you need to look out of to find the target also lets people outside see the rocket launcher inside. In a vehicle makes far more sense," Steve decided.

"So we need to look for vehicles large enough to house a two-man team, probably a driver, as well as the launch tube and rockets. A large van, perhaps, or else a delivery truck?" Clint suggested.

Vision spoke up, "No one would look twice at a delivery truck driving down the streets of New York City; it works on the same principle as my disguise. The back would be more than large enough to house everything they need, as well as various tactical supplies for their other teams. Odds are they have four or five trucks trading off driving around the Tower and stopping every so often."

"JARVIS?" Clint ordered.

"I am already scanning the traffic cameras for delivery trucks spending too much time within a one-mile radius from the Tower," the computer responded.

"Focus especially on the streets that the parking garage lets out onto," Clint commanded.

"Odds are they have the same arrangement with the SAM teams," Steve observed.

"They may have the rocket launcher teams scanning both the ground and the air," Clint responded, "but they have other options with their surface-to-air missiles. If you were assaulting an airfield and you needed to prevent any launch, what would you do?"

"I put a pair of SAM teams right at the end of the runway and ordered them to take the planes out before they even left the ground," Steve responded instantly. "Or at least that's the way I did it in Cairo. Now that I think about it, that was the only time we actually _used_ surface-to-air missiles; most of the time we could just call in air support."

"Our launch pad is the 121st and 122nd floors, and extends out from the south side of the Tower when we need it," Clint pointed out.

"So their Stingers are probably in these buildings right here," Steve said, pointing at the map. "Perfect line-of-sight to our launch pad, and well within range to take out our quinjet as soon as they can see it."

"JARVIS, Vision, we need to put names with these people and figure out exactly where they are so we can take them out," Clint said.

"Don't worry; we're on it," Vision replied with a serious nod.


	10. Chapter 9

AN: Thanks to Wafflestripe and Qweb, who reviewed the last chapter. Don't worry; I've written 21 chapters so far, and still have a couple to go, and there will be plenty of surprises.

* * *

Bobbi Morse yawned and sat up in her cot in the small medical ward of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s New York field office. With a rush, the headache that had been lurking on the edge of her consciousness since the night before came back. She groaned, reached for the pill cup sitting on the table next to her bed, and tossed the three ibuprofen in her mouth. She washed them down with a glass of water sitting on the table by the pills.

Glancing around the small room, she saw that Carol Danvers was occupying the other cot. Despite her protests to the contrary, she had been forced to spend the night in the medical ward as well. Powers of regeneration or not, her ordeal in the explosion had drained her in a way that no amount of simple Gatorade could replenish. Watching her sleep, however, Bobbi could tell that she would be back to her normal self by the time she awoke at 0700.

Seeing Carol and remembering the explosion that caused her prolonged weakness brought the memories of the previous day flooding back. After Rhodes had taken Scott away, Bobbi had passed out leaning against the car beside her. Carol had awakened her an hour later when the S.H.I.E.L.D. team arrived in four Flying Utility Vehicles to collect them and their still-unconscious prisoners. Bobbi and Carol had ridden to the S.H.I.E.L.D. field office in the first FUV, while Danny and Luke followed on their miraculously undamaged motorcycle. When they arrived at the nondescript building on Division Avenue just off the Brooklyn Queens Expressway that served as S.H.I.E.L.D.'s New York office, they were whisked straight into the debriefing room to give a report on their search of Harlem, particularly the explosion that had so grievously injured their teammate.

All of this meant that it was not until about five hours after the explosion that she was able to receive proper medical treatment. The doctor on staff had released Danny and Luke with little more than a cursory glance; their healing abilities were quite well documented in their S.H.I.E.L.D. medical files. He had taken a little more time with Carol; she was still weakened from her struggle to control so much excess energy, and the energy tablet Bobbi had given her had begun to wear off. Eventually he decided that she was unhurt apart from desperately needing food and rest.

Lastly, the doctor checked Bobbi over. He immediately declared that she had a minor concussion from hitting her head on the pavement, but that was the worst of her injuries. He told her to rest and take some ibuprofen for the headache, and put a couple bandages on the still-untreated cut on her forehead to pull the skin back together. Finally, he assigned each of the women a "bed" (if they could be called such) in the medical ward and ordered them to use them.

Bobbi pulled on a blue tank top and athletic shorts. Getting up from the hard cot that passed for a bed and walking over to the restroom, she wondered abstractly what the two Heroes for Hire had been doing since being released from medical the previous day.

* * *

"What is the name of your organization?" Luke demanded threateningly, rubbing his fists together and stepping closer to the man handcuffed to the metal chair in front of him: one of the gunmen from the roadblock.

"The Boy Scouts," the prisoner sneered.

"You believe that, Fist? We were fighting a bunch of Boy Scouts yesterday! Now how about that?" Luke said mockingly, looking over at his partner.

"No way," Danny said sarcastically, moving from the wall he'd been leaning against to stand next to the prisoner. He grinned as he said, "_I_ was in Boy Scouts back in the day. It was fun: hiking, camping, horseback riding, and all that stuff. I even got to do some shooting and archery. Of course, when _I_ was in the Boy Scouts, we only got to shoot .22 rifles, BB guns, and the occasional shotgun. You're lucky if _your_ troop lets you shoot AK-47s!"

"What can I say," the man shrugged, "different times."

"Must be _very_ different," Danny observed. He leaned over the man and asked, "When did the Boy Scouts go from helping little old ladies cross streets while wearing olive green and tan to pointing semi-automatic assault rifles at innocent motorists while wearing black combat uniforms?"

"Patriot Act?" the man mocked.

"Now _that's_ funny," Luke said with a humorless glare, gripping the arms of the man's chair so hard the metal started to bend. "A terrorist appealing to the _threat _of terrorism!"

"Wait, _terrorist!?_" the man sputtered. "I'm no terrorist!"

"Really?" Danny demanded. He gave the metal table in front of the man a chi-infused punch for emphasis. It dented; the man jumped. "You use standard terrorist weapons," another punch, "you set up unsanctioned roadblocks in American cities," a third punch, "you attack American civilians," yet another punch, "you're being interrogated in an American government agency building," another punch; a hole through the metal table, "and _you're not a terrorist?_" With a final punch, Danny smashed the table in two. The pieces caved in with a resounding clang.

Luke leaned in close to the man's ear and whispered loudly, "He really doesn't like terrorists. I mean, _really_. In fact, he likes doing that to them, but on something a lot more important to them." He gave the man a meaningful look for emphasis.

The prisoner stared at the remnants of the table, wide-eyed and pale, shock and fear obvious in his eyes. "I swear we're not terrorists," the man pleaded hysterically. "We work for a private U.S. military contractor out of state. We were hired to provide security for a job by some nameless, faceless organization. The customer told us the weapons to use. Our fees are paid from an off-shore bank account. That's all I know, I swear!"

"Details," Luke said, dragging a card table from the corner of the interrogation room and setting it up in front of the man's chair. He produced paper and a pen, and put them on the table. "Write down everything you know about the job, about the customer, about your team, _everything_."

With a resigned sigh, the prisoner began to write. Danny and Luke walked out of the room. "I like this whole 'Bad Cop, Worse Cop' routine!" Danny muttered. "Very cathartic!"

They stepped out of the interrogation room and turned to the S.H.I.E.L.D. agent guarding it. "As soon as he's done writing, take him out and bring in the next one. Keep the guys we've talked to separate from the rest. Leave the table pieces right where they are, and don't bother wiping off the seat."

* * *

"How do you want to play it this time?" Danny muttered ten minutes later, looking through the window into the interrogation room.

"'We know everything; your only hope is to cooperate'?" Luke offered.

"Works for me." Danny pushed the door open and stepped inside, with Luke following.

"This won't take too long," Luke said, dropping a folder on the card table for emphasis. "We already know the whole story; this is just a formality."

"I still don't see why we need to do this," Danny observed from behind the handcuffed man. "He's not going to talk. Not that we _need_ him to," he added, putting a hand on the back of the chair. The man stayed silent.

Luke waited a moment and pulled a couple sheets out of the folder. He pulled out a pen, set it next to the pages, and said, "Well, I guess that about covers it. Just sign this form here; it says that you are invoking your 5th Amendment right against self-incrimination. Then sign this one here, and we're done."

"Just like that?" the man asked, surprised.

"Just like that," Luke confirmed.

"What's that form there mean?" the man asked gesturing at the second piece of paper.

"That? Oh, that's nothing. It's just a formality; it allows us to send you to our secret prison facility for particularly dangerous criminals indefinitely," Danny said with a dismissive wave.

"What?" the man shouted. "Don't we get a trial before getting sent to some secret prison?"

"Normally you would, but your buddy explained exactly what you guys were up to, so a trial is really not necessary. We actually just got off the phone with a judge, who agreed with our argument that the circumstances require immediate sentencing," Luke explained.

"What about 'innocent until proven guilty'?" the man demanded.

"Oh, you were," Danny smirked. "It's just that the 'innocent' part was unusually short, and the 'proven guilty' part already happened."

"I want a lawyer," the man demanded next.

"Unfortunately, this whole business is classified way above your lawyer's pay grade and a matter of national security, so we don't actually have to give you a lawyer," Luke responded.

"What if I agree to talk? If I tell you what I know, will the judge give me a reduced sentence of some sort?" the man asked desperately.

"Depending on what you tell us, we might be able to persuade the judge to put you in a normal prison," Luke answered. "Of course, there really isn't anything you can tell us that we don't already know."

"We'll see about that," the man said confidently. "I was the team leader for the team assigned to the warehouse distraction. I bet there's _something_ I know that you don't know yet."

"Tell us everything you know," Danny said.

The man began, "Our private military company was asked to provide three squads of men for an unknown domestic mission. One squad was responsible for securing an unknown location where a crime lord would be kept hostage. The second squad was responsible for pinning down the crime lord's organization to prevent rescue attempts before the proper authorities could take possession of the crime lord. My squad of 46 was tasked with setting up and maintaining a decoy hostage situation to lure any potential rescuers."

"Do you know anything about the hostage?" Luke asked.

"No," the man said. "Just that he's in charge of a major New York crime syndicate and wanted by the FBI, though the FBI couldn't touch him."

"Not even close," Danny said. "Your target was Tony Stark."

"What? Iron Man himself? No way." The man shook his head vigorously.

"If you were taking down a major crime syndicate, do you really think you'd be sitting in a government agency's interrogation room?"

"Dammit," the man muttered. He shook his head and desperately pleaded, "He lied to us! I swear that my team didn't know anything about an attack against the Avengers themselves!"

"What was the plan?" Luke asked, leaning in closer and fixing the man with a glare of barely-restrained rage.

"I don't know exactly what the other teams' plans were. I do know that the response-suppression team has the fifteen best snipers we have, and last I knew their total strength was around seventy. I think the team on hostage protection duty is somewhere in New Jersey, but that's all I know," the man explained.

"Write it all down," Luke ordered, flipping one of the fake forms over and gesturing to the pen. He and Danny walked to the door side-by-side. As soon as they were out, Danny observed, "That may have been our easiest and most productive interrogation ever."

Luke nodded and turned to the S.H.I.E.L.D. agent in the observation room. "See to it that Fury, Captain America, and War Machine all get copies of our findings," he said.

"Will do, sir," the man acknowledged.

* * *

"Fifteen," Steve said, breaking Clint's concentration for a fraction of a second. In that second, however, Vision got in a good hit to Clint's abdomen. Clint glared at him, but the android just smirked.

"Fifteen what?" the assassin asked, confused.

"Snipers," Steve responded. "The Heroes for Hire have been hard at work interrogating all of the prisoners their team captured within the last 24 hours. I just got a preliminary report, and the team pinning us down has the fifteen best snipers that their company employs."

"JARVIS, how many sniper perches have we identified so far?" Clint called out.

"By scanning the rooftops with a view of the tower entrances using the cameras on traffic helicopters, we have identified five sniper perches," the computer responded immediately. "Also, your window-by-window search has located an additional seven perches."

"So if that information can be trusted, and assuming that each sniper has his own perch, and that the spotters are not also snipers, we have three to go," Clint said.

"So it would seem," Steve agreed.


	11. Chapter 10

AN: Thanks to Qweb who reviewed last chapter.

* * *

"Rise and shine, team!" Rhodey shouted, striding into Luke's and Danny's sleeping quarters in the S.H.I.E.L.D. building at exactly 0700. "We've got a big day ahead of us."

"Man, why do you have to do that, man?" Luke groaned, rolling over and throwing a pillow at the intruder's head. "Some of us had a late night; we only finished our last interrogation three hours ago."

"I know; I've been up since then having a planning session with Captain Rogers," James answered. He held out a thermos full of hot coffee, which Luke accepted gratefully, unscrewing the lid and ignoring the small cup, instead drinking directly out of the thermos itself. "The information you… obtained… has already yielded some promising results. Dr. Banner managed to trace the money from the warehouse's energy bills back to the same account in the Caiman Islands that's been subsidizing the small army in the cages downstairs. As we expected, one of our forensic accountants managed to attach the name 'Justin Hammer' to it last night with some very impressive math. Dr. Banner's still trying to gain access to the originating account. But he confirmed that payments are going out of that account into a different account currently being watched by the DEA that has been tied to the Colombian drug cartel that Tony and I thought we had taken down a couple months back."

"I guess that explains how these chumps don't know they're holding Tony Stark hostage," Danny observed, sitting up on his cot. "It must have been the cartel that was responsible for the actual hostage taking; they probably enjoyed it, too."

"That's what Cap and I suspect, too," Rhodey said with a nod. "Oh, you'll be interested to know that Hawkeye's been hard at work for the last day trying to track down the forces keeping them pinned down in the Tower. Thanks to your information, he's located most of the enemy forces."

"So we might be getting some backup after all," Luke said with a small laugh.

"No guarantees," Rhodey cautioned, "but maybe."

"That reminds me: How is Scotty doing?" Luke asked.

"Still touch-and-go," Rhodey replied. "The docs say he's still not out of the woods. They have no idea when he'll be back on duty, or even when he can regain consciousness. But they do think he will make it."

"At least there's that. We go back quite a ways," Luke commented, temporarily lost in memory.

"So what are we doing today?" Danny asked.

"Well, according to your information, they're holding Tony somewhere in New Jersey, so we're going to start there. Team A, along with the S.H.I.E.L.D. analysts, are going over every word of your findings from last night, looking for any clues to narrow down out search parameters. We're going to get started searching as soon as Mockingbird and Ms. Marvel are ready," Rhodey answered.

* * *

Bobbi returned from the bathroom a few minutes after 0700 to find Carol still asleep. _Better be getting to work soon_, she thought resignedly. She walked over to the other woman's cot and put her right hand on Carol's shoulder. She gave the shoulder a gentle shake to wake her up. Carol sat bolt upright and nearly sent a beam of energy through Bobbi's chest before she caught herself.

"Well, at least your reaction time is back to normal," Bobbi observed, arching an eyebrow at her.

Carol stretched her arms before pulling on a white tank top and grey sweatpants. "I actually feel a lot better than I did yesterday," she commented. "Ready to get back to work."

"Agreed," Bobbi responded, stubbornly ignoring her still-present headache. "Let's get to it. But first I want to see if _this_ S.H.I.E.L.D. building has any better breakfast selections than the helicarrier."

* * *

Bobbi and Carol found the other three members of their team already in the 3rd-floor mess hall waiting for them at a table near the door. When they returned to the table with their trays of plastic-looking scrambled eggs and overcooked bacon, Rhodes asked, "How are you two feeling this morning?"

"Carol's back to normal," Bobbi replied. "It still feels like a squirrel is attacking my skull with a jackhammer from the inside, though. But," she added quickly, "I'm good to go. How is Scott?" she asked with forced casualness.

Rhodey gave her a look before answering, "He's out of surgery for the moment, and last I checked he's still unconscious."

"What's the plan to avenge his injury?" Carol asked, digging into her unappetizing breakfast like she hadn't eaten for a week.

"Yesterday, Luke and Danny interrogated about half the prisoners we've taken, and got a lot of information out of them," Rhodes answered. "Cap and I had a brainstorming session this morning, and decided that we will keep searching from the air, while his team keeps tracing the electronic paper trail back to Tony and whoever happens to be Hammer's "man on the outside." Our mission today is to search the entire state of New Jersey, starting from the Lincoln Tunnel, since that was their closest exit from the City."

"Seriously? You weren't able to narrow it down further than an entire state?" Carol demanded, looking at the two Heroes for Hire.

"Hey, we were lucky we got that much!" Danny said, raising his hands. "And anyways, it could be worse."

"How?"

"We could be searching Alaska!"

"Hopefully we won't have to search the entire state," Rhodey interrupted. "Or Alaska, for that matter. We know it took less than three hours to get to wherever they're holding him. Hopefully the S.H.I.E.L.D. analysts going over the interrogation notes will be able to narrow our search area even further."

"So what's the plan for doing that?" Bobbi asked, abandoning her half-eaten eggs and bacon in favor of an apple. "I assume we're not searching the entire state on foot."

"Definitely not," Rhodes shook his head. "We've divided the state into sectors. You, Ms. Marvel, and I will fly over one sector at a time in a grid pattern, looking for any unusual activity on the sensors. If we find anything that needs to be checked out more closely, Power Man and Iron Fist will go in by motorcycle to take a closer look."

"Me?" Bobbi asked. "Last I checked, _I_'m not the one who got struck by Asgardian magical-sciency-energy while flying a modified F-22; that's Carol here!"

"You are certified to fly small aircraft, right?"

"Not technically, but Carol and Clint have been giving me lessons," Bobbi acknowledged. "I could probably manage in a small turbo-prop plane."

"Then it's settled. We'll leave as soon as the two of you finish breakfast."

* * *

Bruce punched the desk in front of him in frustration. The computer screen in front of him showed the same red "Access Denied" message that had been up there for the past hour. Every attempt to access Justin Hammer's other accounts had been blocked by his bank's security.

"If you're not careful, I may need to tranquilize you again," a familiar voice observed from the laboratory door. Bruce looked over to see Vision standing there along with Clint, both with similar smirks on their faces.

"I've still got him under control," Bruce responded, turning back toward the computer. "Although at the moment he's wondering if maybe the best way to find Metal Man is for him to _smash_ this bank!"

"You know, that may not be such a bad idea," Clint said suddenly, walking over to stand behind the scientist and reading the screen over Bruce's shoulder.

"Yeah, if it weren't for the fact that the bank is in Switzerland, I'm in the Tower, and seventy of Justin Hammer's closest friends are waiting outside to blow Tony _to_ Switzerland if I even try it!"

"Maybe you'd get there in time to catch him on the way down!" Clint joked. "But what I mean is, maybe smashing the bank's security is the way to get in. When Hulk smashes something, what does he do?"

"Generally, he picks the closest object and wails away at it with his fists," Bruce observed wryly.

"Not with us he doesn't," Clint argued. "He always identifies the correct target, in this case the bank. Then, he finds the weak point and pounds at that until the target gets turned to dust."

"So what we need to do is find the security system's weak point, and then smash away at that with an obscene amount of force to turn it into dust," Vision concluded. "So what's the weakest chink in their armor?"

"Describe the system," Clint instructed Bruce.

"Well, the electronic security is housed on separate servers from the information itself. It ensures that they can shut down the servers with the information without ever deactivating the electronic security measures," Bruce responded immediately.

"But it also means we can overload the circuits on one without harming the other," Clint observed. He pulled a flash drive out of his pocket. "Here's a virus I cooked up for a mission a few years back. It will set off every security alarm in the building and implant moving human-shaped shadows on every security feed. They'll be too busy chasing ghosts to worry about their electronic security system getting turned off."

Bruce took the flash drive and put it in the computer. He typed in a string of commands on the screen. "I'm going to install a backdoor in their system to allow us access to the account information any time we want it even after their electronic security gets rebooted. It will also let us know if there's any account activity."

Bruce mentally prepared himself for the next couple moments. He knew he would only have a couple seconds to shut down the security system and install the virus, even with Clint's distraction program. "You know, I could use an extra hand here," he said. Clint wordlessly pulled another console over and sat on the stool next to Bruce's.

Bruce hit "Enter," implanting Clint's virus in the bank's security system control center. At another console, Vision had brought up the feed from the bank's security cameras to watch what would happen. Fifteen seconds after Bruce implanted the virus, it activated. Vision watched every security alarm in the building light up simultaneously. At the same moment, over a hundred shadows appeared on the screens, each about the size and shape of a human man. The shadows all moved independently, and even seemed to seek cover to avoid being seen by the security guards now converging on every corner of the bank.

While Vision was watching the results of their distraction, Clint and Bruce were both typing away at their consoles furiously. Clint had remotely overloaded the electricity for the electronic security system less than 10 seconds after the distraction began. The circuit breaker tripped, and the security computers went down. The "Access Denied" message that had angered Bruce so much disappeared, replaced by the front page of Hammer's secure bank account. "We're in," he said tersely.

Bruce already had his tracker virus ready to go. He hit "Enter," implanting the new virus in the bank's systems. It immediately embedded itself in the random-access memory, ready to spring out as soon as the security system reactivated. As soon as that was done, Bruce downloaded all the information on the account, including a list of connected accounts. As soon as he had the list of connected accounts, Clint started downloading all the available information on those accounts. When they had as much information as they could retrieve, Bruce removed all traces of their presence in the system. In all, the process took less than thirty seconds.

"Let's see what we got," Clint commented, looking at the information on the screen in front of him.

* * *

"Hello, this is Dr. Foster."

"Hi. Dr. Foster, this is Steve Rogers; I'm a good friend of Thor's from the Avengers," Steve said into the phone nervously.

"Hi, Captain Rogers," the woman on the other end said pleasantly. "Thor speaks very highly of you. What can I do for you?"

"We have a… situation here in New York. We need his help, but we need to talk to him before he comes to Earth. I know you've been doing research about ways to travel from Earth to Asgard—"

"How do you know about my research?" she demanded.

"Ma'am, I work with S.H.I.E.L.D. And Tony Stark has been reading your articles in _Quantum Physics/Astronomy Monthly_ religiously; I think he's a fan. Anyways, I need to know: Do you have any way of sending messages to Asgard?"


	12. Chapter 11

Bobbi took off from Teterboro Airport at exactly 0900, less than 20 minutes after Carol dropped her off on the tarmac just outside the twin-engine crop duster that S.H.I.E.L.D. had rented for this mission. A S.H.I.E.L.D. technician had installed sensors on the tips of the wings, underbelly, and tail of the plane, along with an adjustable video camera in the plane's nose and a monitor on the console so she could track the data. It was also being fed into the War Machine suit remotely, which would allow JARVIS to compile and analyze all the data she gathered.

As soon as she was aloft, she turned north to begin her sweep of the sector closest to New York City. West of her position, War Machine and Ms. Marvel had both already begun sweeping their respective sectors.

"Power Man, this is Mockingbird," she said an hour later, staring intently at the monitor next to her.

"Go ahead, Bird," came the prompt reply.

"I've got a warehouse with suspicious activity in my sector."

"What's the grid square and coordinate?" Luke asked. In the background she could hear Danny unfolding the tactical map. A glass clinked as one of them moved it out of the way; she guessed they were in a diner somewhere waiting for orders.

"It is in Sector Three, grid square Fifteen-Golf. Coordinate is 145 and 37," Bobbi rattled off. She waited a minute while the two men searched for the appropriate location.

"I show that as in Hoboken," Danny reported.

"Affirmative."

"What's the situation?" Luke asked.

"Upwards of 300 heat signatures inside, and the video feed has shown men entering and exiting in a steady stream since I arrived over this grid square," Bobbi reported.

"We're less than 30 minutes out," Luke said, putting the motorcycle into gear and turning out of the diner parking lot into traffic.

Over the next thirty minutes, Bobbi confirmed that there was no other suspicious activity in her sector. When Luke reported that they were outside the warehouse in question, Bobbi returned to observe from the air.

* * *

"I see what you mean about suspicious activity," Danny murmured into his communicator five minutes later. He was lying on a roof across the street observing through binoculars. "I count at least 20 people who have either gone in or come out since I arrived. And they seem to have sentries posted outside the doors."

"But it seems like a surprising number of those leaving are female," Luke observed from his vantage point in an alley next to the warehouse. "I'm getting a closer look," he decided. Eyeing the side of the building facing him, he saw a small window 20 feet above the ground. A dumpster sat directly beneath the window. Between the dumpster and window, Luke noticed a couple cracks that might pass for handholds. He climbed up on top of the dumpster and jumped for the first crack. He missed, but managed to punch one massive fist into the brickwork and create his own handhold instead. Carefully he pulled himself up to the first crack, and slowly made his way up to the window. One look inside the building showed him that they were definitely in the wrong place.

* * *

"You stumbled onto a _WHAT_?" Rhodey shouted into the suit's communicator from 40 miles away.

"You heard me right. Mockingbird discovered a human trafficking warehouse in Hoboken," Luke answered calmly. "Now the question becomes: What do we do with this information?"

"Call the police," Rhodey decided. "They can take down the traffickers; we need to find Tony."

"No way," Danny interjected. "We've seen what these people do when they're about to be captured. They'll kill all the witnesses and take off if they even _hear_ sirens. Get the cops involved and the women probably will not survive."

"Negative," Rhodey responded. "It's not our mission to take down every hint of criminal activity we discover today; it's our mission to rescue an Avenger who's been captured." There was silence on the other end of the communicator. "Fine. How about a compromise?" Rhodey finally asked resignedly.

"What do you have in mind, boss?" Luke demanded.

"You and Fist stay and deal with this thing all you want. Mockingbird will move on and begin searching the next sector," Rhodey said.

"You got it. If you need us, you know where to find us," Luke said, terminating the connection. "Did you hear that, Bird?"

"Yes, I did," Bobbi replied immediately. "Good luck. Let me know if you run into any trouble. Mockingbird out." The plane immediately banked south to resume the search.

"So what are we going to do, Luke?" Danny asked.

"I'm thinking I'll pose as a buyer. You think you can get onto the warehouse roof to give me backup?"

"No problem."

* * *

Ten minutes later, Luke appeared in front of the warehouse door wearing a bright purple coat and top hat, and about a dozen gold chains around his neck. The clothing's previous owner was taking an unexpected nap in the dumpster next to the warehouse.

The two guards next to the door moved to block the door and gave him a look when he walked up. Satisfied with what they saw, they stepped to the side and allowed him to enter the warehouse. The briefest glance at the roof reassured Luke that Danny was already in place.

As soon as Luke stepped into the warehouse, he was confronted by a large man in a white suit and very expensive-looking shoes. "My friend! Welcome! I hope you will be satisfied with my wares," the man said, wrapping Luke in an embrace. Luke felt the man patting him down subtly, looking for any weapons. _Too bad for him, all the weapons I need came from my mother!_ Luke smirked inwardly, though outwardly his expression remained cool and detached.

"I look forward to inspecting your merchandise," Luke responded. "Unfortunately, my last supplier only ever had inferior stock: too old, sickly, diseased. Sadly, he went out of business." Luke let that comment hang for a moment. "Nothing like _your_ product, I trust?"

"Certainly not," the man laughed humorously. "I only sell the best! Domestically, at least," he added with a wink. "But come. _Talking_ about them is no good; you need to see for yourself!"

They turned a corner, and the sight nearly made Luke sick to his stomach. More than 300 half-naked women were huddled into two large cages running the length of the warehouse. The women appeared to be well fed; there wasn't much market for half-starved women with bloated stomachs. However, instead of normal toilet facilities, the captives had to make do with a couple buckets on the floor. They were only allowed the barest of essentials for clothing, leaving as much of their bodies exposed for potential customers to inspect as possible. Luke estimated their average age to be no more than 18, with a large number below 15.

Their countries of origin were all over the place: he picked out a group of Eastern European women huddled together in the corner closest to him, and Asian girls (probably Chinese) in the cage opposite the Europeans. Latin Americans were farther down; he could pick out the occasional terrified phrase in Spanish. A small number of African women were closer to his position, all glaring daggers at the closest guard. Here and there in the crowd, Luke could even pick out what he thought might be an American girl; they were keeping apart from the rest of the captives and looking around at the scene before them with terror in their eyes.

There were armed guards posted every few feet with M-16s leveled against the unfortunate captives; Luke estimated about 20 guards, as well as another two who never strayed far from their boss. Already, Luke could feel the makings of a plan beginning to form in his mind.

"Do I have to take your word that they meet my quality expectations?" Luke asked casually. "I would like to inspect a couple for myself before I buy anything."

The man laughed, "I would expect nothing less, Mr…"

"Call me 'Johnny.' 'Johnny Cash,'" Luke said, raising an eyebrow at him.

"Very well, 'Johnny,'" the man said with a jovial laugh. "Which of my merchandise would you like to inspect?"

Luke walked up and down the aisle between the cages and made a show of appraising the girls inside them. "I think I would like those two, and then those over there," he finally said, indicating a pair of tough-looking Hispanic girls and the group of six African women he'd noticed earlier.

"Ah," the trafficker nodded appreciatively. "Excellent choices. Your clients must like girls with a little fight left in them, eh? Don't like them to submit too easily?"

"I wouldn't want to disappoint my clients," Luke said ambiguously. At an order a couple of the guards opened the cage doors and forced the selected women out into the aisle. Luke was impressed to see that despite the circumstances, a couple of the women still put up some resistance to being herded like cattle. Eventually, all eight women were forced into a room sitting against the near wall of the warehouse. The leader gestured for Luke to precede him into the room, which he did. A pair of guards followed him in, then the leader, and lastly two more guards.

The four guards kept their guns leveled at the eight girls, all of whom were glaring at their captors angrily. The leader turned to Luke, raised his eyebrow, and said, "How would you like to inspect them, 'Johnny'?"

Luke thought exaggeratedly before pointing at the woman he took to be the leader of the African girls. She looked to only be around 17, but carried herself with more maturity and strength; despite standing in front of a group of tough, armed men, she didn't have any fear in her eyes. "Her first," Luke said. One of the guards nudged her with the muzzle of his rifle. She gave the man a glare, but silently obeyed.

As soon as the girl was standing next to him, he moved to stand between her and the guards, and looked at her closely. She merely glared at him. He stepped closer, until they were standing face to face. He leaned over, ostensibly to take a closer look at her skin, but he whispered in her ear, "I'm going to get you out of here, but I need your help. On my signal, do what comes naturally."

Without waiting for a response, Luke turned around and asked, "Do you expect these girls to walk out of this building in nothing but their underwear? I don't like the idea of being questions by the fuzz for parading a bunch of half-naked women down the street."

"Rack in the storage room behind you," the man said distractedly. "Though that's hardly necessary since you haven't inspected the rest and we haven't talked price."

"Oh, I expect the price will be pretty high," Luke said, taking a step toward the leader. He noted that the four gunmen edged a little closer to their boss at that move.

"I only sell the best," the leader said dismissively. Luke took another step. Two of the gunmen moved to stand in front of their boss, guns still pointed at the seven girls huddled in the corner.

Luke attacked before the guards had a chance to react. He took another step to close the gap between himself and the leader. As soon as he was close enough, he grabbed a fistful of the man's spotless white suit and lifted him clean off the floor. He pulled him in close and said, "_This_ is the price you pay." With that, he swung the man around in a circle, taking out three of the guards before they could cry out. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the girl kick the last guard in the crotch hard. He went down without a sound. Finally, Luke swung the human trafficker's now-limp body up in the air and brought it crashing to the floor. The man made a weak gasping sound, but other than that was silent.

Luke looked up to see seven pairs of eyes looking at him in shock and amazement. "Get dressed," he said tersely. "Believe it or not, that was the easy part."


	13. Chapter 12

AN: I apologize for not posting yesterday. The trouble of being a student is not having a set schedule. Thanks to those who have favorited, reviewed, and followed this. Review and let me know what you think!

* * *

"Iron Fist here," Danny said into his communicator.

"The boss and four of the guards are all down, unconscious, and bound. Eight of the girls are free, but there are still eighteen guards out there and probably around 300 prisoners," Luke reported.

"What's your plan?"

"I still have the element of surprise on my side, along with eight armed former prisoners out for blood. What I need is a way to get close to the guards without them suspecting anything. That's where you come in. There's a catwalk about 10 feet below the roof access. Get on that, and be ready to jump down on top of the guard farthest away from the main entrance on my signal," Luke ordered.

"Give me thirty seconds," Danny smirked. "This will be fun."

* * *

All eighteen guards turned to stare as they saw Luke emerge from the "play room," as they had taken to calling it. He was followed by two girls pushing the clothes rack, one on either side.

"Your boss said I could come out and pick a couple more girls since I was so… _pleased_… with the first eight," Luke called out with a cruel grin.

"What's the clothes rack for, then?" the nearest guard demanded suspiciously.

"I'd rather not see my money freezing to death in a cold warehouse," Luke responded, drawing alongside the man. At that moment, the guard noticed six pairs of feet under the clothes rack. He was about to call out a warning when Luke nodded.

Danny Rand dropped 20 feet to the ground directly on top of one of the guards. When Danny landed on him, the man collapsed to the ground and his gun clattered across the floor. As one, sixteen of the other guards turned to stare at him. Danny saw Luke grab the seventeenth guard in the distance and snap his neck like a twig. By that time, Danny had more important things to worry about: sixteen assault rifles were aimed directly at his chest.

Before the guards had a chance to attack him, however, the girls pushing the clothes rack ran with it into the middle of the warehouse. Six girls jumped out of the middle, four with assault rifles and the others with handguns. All the girls in the cages fell to the floor when they saw their comrades armed and ready to attack their captors. Without hesitation, the girls fired on the guards nearest to them.

Three of the closest guards were killed instantly as the remaining thirteen turned to point their rifles at them. The guards fired just as the girls fell to the floor and threw their arms over their heads to protect themselves.

The guards' momentary distraction was all that the Heroes for Hire needed, however. Danny and Luke charged from opposite ends of the center aisle. Luke bellowed like an ox as he plowed five guards over with his outstretched arms without slacking his pace. Danny concentrated his chi in his left fist and punched one of the supports for the cage on his left side. The wire wavered for a moment before falling over, freeing all the girls in that cage and collapsing on top of the five remaining guards on that side of the aisle. Several of the girls ran out and attacked the last three guards, kicking and scratching at them until they fell to the ground.

Danny calmly walked over to the other cage and gave it a kick, which knocked it down and freed the remaining captives. Satisfied that they were all safe and uninjured, he walked over to where Luke was crouching next to the clothing-rack-turned-Trojan-Horse. When he got closer, he saw the reason: one of the African girls had taken a bullet in the gut while trying to protect a younger girl with her own body.

Luke was staring at the girl in shock; it was the girl he'd picked out immediately as a natural leader. Her eye opened slightly; she saw him looking at her. She whispered something too softly for him to hear, so he leaned closer. "Thank you," she whispered again.

"Thank _you_," Luke said gently. "This would never have worked without you. Tell me your name," he urged.

"My name… is Shuri," she said weakly.

"Why does that sound so familiar?" Luke asked, not really expecting an answer.

"My brother… King… Wakanda," she said, forcing herself to stay awake.

"Damn," Luke said, straightening up abruptly. "Shuri, I met your brother a while back. I'm going to get you help."

"What's up?" Danny said, rushing over to Luke.

"That girl is Black Panther's little sister."

"What the hell?" Danny exclaimed, pulling off his T-shirt and dropping to the ground as he did so. He ignored the startled cries around him and moved to kneel next to Shuri. He pressed the shirt over the wound, applying as much pressure as he could to try to slow the bleeding.

"Tell me about it. Helicarrier," Luke shouted, changing frequencies on his communicator, "we have a serious situation here."

"Agent Hill here," came the response a minute later. "What's the situation?"

"No time to explain. We have a S.H.I.E.L.D. ally's dependant injured and in need of immediate assistance. Request immediate backup and med. evac.," Luke said hurriedly.

"Local EMTs and police are already on their way. Now how the hell did you somehow manage to get a S.H.I.E.L.D. ally's dependant injured? And who is he?" Hill demanded.

"Did War Machine explain what happened?" Luke asked, ignoring the question.

"He mentioned something about you refusing to let the locals handle a human trafficking ring that you uncovered. Why?"

"Iron Fist and I subdued all of the human traffickers with a little help from the captives themselves and minimal casualties. I identified one captive as something of a leader and enlisted her help in taking out their captors. She took a bullet in the gut trying to protect another girl. Her name is Shuri," Luke replied.

"Shuri? Hang on, we got a memo about someone by that name a couple weeks ago." Luke heard Hill typing feverishly on her computer through the communicator. He sighed with relief as he heard sirens getting closer to their location. "I've got it here. It says that Shuri was kidnapped by Erik Killmonger to use as leverage against the Wakandan royal family. She is missing, whereabouts unknown." Hill let out a string of curses. "Her brother is—"

"—is T'Challa, the Black Panther of the Wakandan tribe and King of Wakanda," Luke finished. "Yeah. And now Black Panther's sister is bleeding to death on the floor of a warehouse in Hoboken."

At that moment the paramedics burst through the door, followed closely by a small army of uniformed police officers. Two paramedics dropped to the floor next to where Danny was still trying to slow the blood flow, and took over caring for Shuri. The police officers, meanwhile, secured the prisoners and began the arduous task of taking statements from the former captives and trying to locate their families.

"S.H.I.E.L.D. will take responsibility for her care as soon as the paramedics have her stabilized. I've already dispatched a fully-staffed medical quinjet to Hoboken," Hill said. "Make sure the EMTs keep her there until the jet arrives. Our South African office is sending a couple agents to inform King T'Challa of the situation. Congratulations, Cage, you saved a world leader's sister."

Luke didn't get a chance to respond, because at that moment, he noticed that the paramedics were getting ready to wheel Shuri out on a gurney. "That won't be necessary," he said, striding over to them. "The Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement, and Logistics Division is taking responsibility for her care."

"What's that?" the paramedic said blankly.

"It's a super-secret government agency. I'd tell you more, but then I'd have to kill you," Danny said wryly, standing up and tossing his bloodstained shirt away.

"Just keep her here for another five minutes," Luke said, ignoring his partner's sarcasm.

* * *

Less than five minutes later, a white quinjet with a red cross painted on the underside, wings, and loading ramp landed in the deserted parking lot behind the warehouse. A S.H.I.E.L.D. medical team ran down the ramp the moment the wheels touched the ground. As soon as they had determined that she was stable, they transferred Shuri to their own gurney and wheeled her up onto the quinjet, leaving the local paramedics staring after them in confusion and surprise. The quinjet took off less than a minute later. In all, it was only on the ground five minutes.

As soon as they were certain that Shuri was safely in S.H.I.E.L.D.'s protection, Luke and Danny climbed onto their motorcycle and tried to put the human trafficking incident behind them in as many senses as possible.

* * *

"I think I've found it."

"What was that?" Steve asked, looking up from the pile of bank statements in front of him. After Clint and Bruce had broken into Justin Hammer's secure bank files, Clint had returned to the shooting range. Steve had volunteered to assist Bruce in analyzing all the information they had found.

"Hammer Corporation owns 10 properties all up and down the East Coast, but Justin Hammer's paying utilities on 11," Bruce said triumphantly, turning his monitor toward Steve.

"I see," Steve said, looking more closely at the screen.

"He's got this last one hidden really well," Bruce acknowledged. "The utilities are being paid for out of a dummy account that he only created two days before they captured Tony, and the deposits into the account are being routed through a dozen accounts in nine different countries. But this is the one," he said, stabbing the screen with his finger.

"Where is it?" Steve asked.

"That's the thing; it doesn't give a name, address, or even a city. All I have is a series of numbers," Bruce answered disappointedly.

"See if you can turn those numbers into something," Steve ordered. "I'm going to let War Machine know we're chasing down a lead."

* * *

"JARVIS, Training Scenario Alpha-Tango. Populate the map with the forces currently besieging the Tower," Clint commanded, standing outside the shooting range eight floors above Bruce's lab.

"Training Scenario prepared," JARVIS reported. "Good luck."

Clint threw the door open and found himself looking at the view of New York from the Tower's roof access door. Before he could drop to his chest and crawl to the edge of the roof, however, he felt a pair of impacts on his simulator vest. "JARVIS, pause simulation." The scene immediately paused, leaving the American flag on the Tower's roof in mid-flutter. "JARVIS, what just happened?"

"Sir, one of the enemy snipers has a perfect view of this door from his perch. Would he not use it the moment you emerged?"

"Damn, you're right. Of course a military group trying to pin down a team that includes the best marksman in the world would be prepared _for_ the best marksman in the world to try sniping them. Display the map, including enemy positions."

A holographic map of New York City appeared floating in front of Clint. On it, he could make out fifteen human forms. "There," he said, pointing at one. "But how did they manage to get the Observation Deck of the Empire State Building closed down to do it?"

"The story they are circulating is that it is closed for routine maintenance," JARVIS reported.

"So that guy's waiting to shoot me the moment I appear. Now what do I do about it?" Clint suddenly turned and walked out of the room. He ordered the A.I., "JARVIS, let's run the simulator again, but this time show me a view of that sniper on the screen outside the shooting range before I enter."

He closed the door behind him and looked at the screen beside the door. It showed a sniper with a standard M-24 sniper rifle resting on the railing in front of him. Clint touched the screen and adjusted the view to one side. He saw a flag billowing in the wind. With another touch, Clint changed the view to show that flag, the flag on the top of the Tower, and the sniper himself. Clint did some quick calculations in his head. He quickly flung the door open, lowered his rifle, and fired.


	14. Chapter 13

AN: Thank you to Wafflestripe for reviewing the last chapter. For the record, I wrote the last section of this chapter because of a suggestion in a review, so let me know if you have suggestions, and I will try to work them in.

* * *

Less than a second after the bullet left the barrel of his rifle, Clint felt the all-too-familiar impact of a simulated bullet on his simulator vest. "JARVIS, pause simulation. What was the result of that shot? How was he able to shoot me?" he asked calmly, lowering his sniper rifle as he did so.

"Your bullet struck the other sniper in the head and killed him on impact, but he also fired the moment you appeared in the doorway. The bullets crossed paths in midair and killed both of you," the A.I. answered. The holographic projection in front of Clint altered to show a video recording of the other sniper alongside Clint during that simulation. In slow motion, Clint watched the roof door open and himself appear in the doorway and bring the rifle to his shoulder. As he did so, the other sniper, whose finger was already on the trigger, tensed, sat up a little straighter, and made a slight adjustment to his aim. The two figures pulled the trigger nearly simultaneously. Seeing it happen in slow motion emphasized the point: both Clint and the other sniper had each been killed by the other's shot.

"Let's run the simulation again," Clint decided, stepping back out of the shooting range. JARVIS reset the training scenario and displayed the same three videos that Clint had requested the previous time: The other sniper, the flag on the Empire State Building, and the American flag on the Tower's roof. Again, Clint did his mental calculations. Again he raised the gun to his shoulder and pointed it at a 60-degree upward angle to the north-east, a couple degrees off from directly at the Empire State Building. This time he asked, "JARVIS, can you open the door automatically for me?"

"Certainly." The door swung open on its own. Clint pulled the trigger as soon as the door was wide enough and dove through the opening. He tucked and rolled the moment he hit the ground, maintaining a firm grip on his sniper rifle with both hands to keep it from hitting the ground. He heard the sound of a bullet's impact in the loose gravel on the roof behind him as his momentum carried him forward into a crouch on one knee and he fired off another shot in about the same direction.

"JARVIS, pause simulation," he said. "Results?"

"Your first bullet hit the sniper in the head again, killing him instantly. His reactionary shot was slightly wide of the mark and missed thanks to your quick shot, roll, and speed. Your second bullet killed his spotter. There is a 5% possibility that the spotter would have been able to warn the rest of the besieging teams before you killed him or duck out of the way to avoid your shot," the A.I. reported, replaying the simulation on the screen.

"Have you been able to isolate the enemy radio frequency?" Clint asked, watching the replay intently.

"Thanks to the information Team B collected, as well as knowing the locations of the enemy snipers, I have."

"Excellent. Let's run the simulation again."

* * *

"Cap, I think we can do this," Clint said three hours later, striding purposefully into the command center. He had run the full training scenario five times, and the first 7.4 seconds of it an additional 75 times, each time with even more promising results. Not yet ready to call it good, he had ordered JARVIS to change the weather conditions on the last few, simulating everything from a gentle breeze to a tornado barreling down Park Avenue to a hurricane and earthquake occurring simultaneously. Finally satisfied with the results of his last full simulation, he had showered and changed out of his combat gear and into jeans and a T-shirt before coming up to find his team leader.

"You have a plan?" Steve asked, looking up from the holographic map of the area around the Tower that had been plaguing all of them for the last three days.

"The beginnings of one," Clint said confidently. "JARVIS, show the recording of that last simulation."

The screen against the far wall flickered on and showed a simulated aerial view of Clint systematically eliminating the fifteen sniper teams. "The hardest part is that they have a sniper about ¾ of a mile away on the Observation Deck of the Empire State Building," Clint explained. "He can see me the moment I appear on the roof, so I need to eliminate him as soon as possible or else risk getting shot myself. JARVIS is already installing three cameras on the roof to give me the three views I need to line up the shot before opening the roof access door. I'll eliminate him and his spotter first, right here." The video paused as Clint pointed out the sniper team on the Empire State Building, which had just been "killed." "As soon as they're gone, I eliminate the remaining six set up on rooftops." The video continued for another 3 and a half minutes as Clint fired twelve more bullets. It then changed to show Clint's simulated form lying prone in a narrow metal tunnel and holding a sniper rifle. "At that point it's just a matter of eliminating eight more, which I can do from inside the Tower."

"Won't they be watching the windows?" Steve asked.

"Windows, almost certainly. Ventilation grates? Most likely not. And even if they are, I'll be far enough inside for most of the shots and using a silencer so they won't hear the gunshots, and I'll use a suppressor to hide the muzzle flash. I can get to all of the remaining teams from these two grates here, which are connected by this shaft to the roof grate. I'll have a couple rifles already set up at the ends of the grates so I don't need to worry about taking the time to bring mine down from the roof," Clint explained, pointing it out on the Tower diagram. "As soon as I eliminate the last three snipers from this opening, I can kick the grate out and use a grappling arrow or climbing rope to get down to street level."

"Actually, this ventilation opening gives you a good vantage point to scan the street in front of the Tower's main entrance," Steve said, gesturing to the one he planned to use on the south side of the building. "I think I'd rather have you stay in there and cover us from above. Now the only question is: How do we take out the _other_ forty guys? The way you describe it, the snipers will be the _easy_ part!"

"Trust me: Counter-sniper operations are _never_ easy!" Clint laughed.

* * *

"Power Man, Iron Fist, are you done with your side project yet?" Mockingbird asked. She had nearly cleared her third sector and had yet to hear from her two teammates after leaving them behind in Hoboken.

"Finished it up a couple hours ago," Luke replied. "Why?"

"Something unusual in my sector," Bobbi said. "It could be nothing, but there's a factory here without any heat signatures inside."

"So?" Danny asked, nonplussed.

"So I just watched a man walk inside. His heat signature disappeared the moment the door closed," Bobbi reported.

"You suspect heat shielding?" Rhodey, who had apparently been listening, broke in.

"Can't be anything else," Bobbi replied firmly. "Something suspicious is in there."

"Power Man, Iron Fist, go check it out," Rhodey ordered. "But if it's a movie pirating operation or something trivial like that, call it in to the locals."

"No promises," Luke smirked. "Where are we headed?"

* * *

"Newark."

"What?" Vision asked distractedly. At the moment his processors were almost exclusively dedicated to searching the street south of the tower for signs of the elusive assault team posted just outside the main entrance, so he was barely aware of the activity around him.

"I finally broke the encryption on Hammer's secret property," Bruce reported exhaustedly but triumphantly. "It's somewhere in Newark. I'm calling Rhodes to let him know."

"I'll go up and inform Captain Rogers," Vision responded. "I can tell him that I may have found some hint at where the assault team is hiding at the same time."

Vision walked out of the lab and stepped into the waiting elevator car. A couple minutes later, he stepped off on the Avengers Administration floor, where he found Clint and Steve in the command center poring over the map of the streets around the Tower.

"Dr. Banner finally found the location of Hammer's secret facility: somewhere in Newark," Vision reported. "Also, the assault team is in the gym across from the Tower entrance and two buildings west."

"How sure are you?" Steve asked without looking away from the holographic map.

"About 98%," the android replied. "These same 20 military-age men have been cycling though there since the day before Mr. Stark's capture."

"Coincidence?" Clint asked.

"Not likely. None of them were even members of that gym before four days ago. They carry bat bags, but never use the batting cage. At least 4 are just standing in the entryway at all times. When they leave during the day, they never travel alone and never stray more than two blocks in any direction. When they leave at night, half stay within a block of the Tower for the night. It's them, all right," Vision responded decisively.

"That is great news," Steve said excitedly.

"Come over and take a look at this," Clint instructed. Vision walked over and saw that Clint had a holographic representation of the assault on the Tower over six months earlier on a side projector. He watched a figure representing himself fall down along the east side of the Tower. "You see this?" Clint asked. "The sniper had no way of seeing you until you were here." He paused the simulation and pointed.

"So he didn't see me until after I had completely transformed."

"Exactly," Clint nodded and pressed a button. The holographic image changed, showing the department store incident a week later. "Same thing here," Clint said, pointing to the figure of Vision inside the store. "The sniper couldn't see you at all."

"What's your point?"

"The point is that he only knows Vision the super security android, _not_ Vision the unassuming businessman," Clint explained. "So you can leave the Tower, and he wouldn't suspect you of any connection to us."

"So?"

"So we have a plan to break the siege, but we need someone already on the outside to make it work," Steve spoke up. "'Someone' meaning you, Vision."

"I don't know about this," the android said, taking a step backward. "This seems to be outside the scope of my programming. My purpose is to protect the Tower, primarily the Stark Industries and Avengers floors, not get involved in Avenger missions."

"But you've exceeded that purpose in the past," Clint argued.

"Only on two occasions, and only because Mr. Stark specifically ordered me to," Vision averred. "When I accompanied Ms. Potts shopping six months ago, it was because Mr. Stark ordered me to protect her. When I traveled with her to China, it was for the same reason."

"Think of it this way," Steve interrupted. "Your purpose is to defend the Tower, correct?"

The android nodded mutely.

"By doing this, you _are_ defending the Tower," Steve continued. "This is a preemptive strike against a force which is prepared to make a direct assault against the Tower, which would likely result in numerous civilian casualties and extensive damage to the Tower itself. If Tony were here, he would order you to assist in this."

The android looked from one Avenger to the other. He considered the request silently. "Very well," he whispered, "I'll do it. What do you need me to do?"

* * *

The door to the pitch-black dungeon-like hole opened and three men walked in. Two held loaded AK-47s trained on the room's sole occupant. The third man held a tray.

The room's occupant looked up and said, "Visitors already? Gee, I'm sorry. If I'd know you were coming I would have dressed up; maybe I would even have put on a suit! At least I've got these nice bracelets on both my wrists."

"Shut up," one of the guards growled, slapping the man across the face.

"That wasn't nice," Tony said, pointing a finger at the man from where his wrist was handcuffed to the chair arm.

"Shut up, or we'll just take your food out," the other guard said, gesturing to the third man with the tray.

"Dinner! Oh, boy! So what is it this time? Steak? Lobster? Pizza? I hope it's better than _last_ time, like maybe _two_ slices of bread!"

"Even better," the man with the tray smirked, setting the tray down across the arms of the chair to which Tony was handcuffed. "Soup. It's good for the soul."

"Hey, thanks, guys," Tony said, looking down at the tray. "Oh, waiter! Could I have a spoon?"

"Sorry," the man said with a smirk, "we're out."

"Well, can I at least use my hands to eat?"

"No." The three men turned and walked out the door, shutting it behind them. The room, and its unfortunate occupant, were plunged back into darkness.


	15. Chapter 14

AN: Thanks to Qweb, who has reviewed since I last updated. Also thanks to Red of the X, who went back and reviewed Stark Security Situation.

* * *

"War Machine, this is Hulk," Rhodey heard on his radio.

"Go ahead, Hulk."

"I've finally cracked the encryption protecting the location of Hammer's secret property. It's in Newark somewhere," Bruce reported.

"Thanks for the heads up," Rhodey answered. "I think we may have already found it; a couple of my guys are on their way over to check out a location in Newark right now."

"Good luck."

"Same to you."

_What does he mean by that?_ Bruce wondered as he put away his communicator.

"Dr. Banner, Captain Rogers is requesting your presence in the mission briefing room as soon as possible," JARVIS informed him at that moment.

* * *

"Hulk confirms that we are looking in the right area," Rhodey reported to the rest of his team. "Power, Fist, be careful while you check that place out."

"Always," Luke responded. "We're just arriving now, so we should have something soon enough."

"Marvel, Bird, start heading over to Newark," Rhodey said next.

"I copy, War Machine," Carol answered. "I'm still on the other side of the state, but I will be there in a few minutes."

"I've already requested emergency clearance to land at Newark Liberty," Bobbi reported. "I will be on the ground by the time Ms. Marvel gets here to pick me up."

* * *

Danny jumped off the back of the motorcycle as they drove past the alley just before they reached their target building. He tucked and rolled and came to a stop behind a garbage can. Luke, meanwhile, proceeded on past the building, giving it little more than a cursory glance as he passed. He turned left down a side street and parked his motorcycle in a McDonald's parking lot across from the factory entrance. Luke climbed an access ladder on the back of the restaurant up to the roof and cautiously lay down facing the factory to watch, careful to keep his head down.

When Luke was in place, Danny shimmied up a pipe along the side of the factory. As soon as he was high enough, he shifted his grip from the pipe to the roof ledge and pulled himself up. He let out a breath when he didn't see anything on the roof except an access hatch. Danny slowly made his way over to the hatch and tried to pull it open, but it was locked. Not to be deterred, Danny concentrated his chi in his right middle finger and flicked the locking mechanism, causing mechanism to shatter and fall into an open position. Danny carefully pulled the hatch open enough to slip his fingers between the trapdoor and the jamb. He pulled a flexible camera out of his pocket and carefully slid it through the opening.

He attached the cable from the camera to his tablet computer to watch the live feed. He stared at it for a good two minutes before he realized it showed what appeared to be moving shapes inside the building. There wasn't very much light inside the factory, so Danny had a difficult time making out any of the shapes clearly. The ones closest to the door appeared to be moving in a set pattern. Twisting the camera around to point toward the back of the warehouse, he could see a few more by the backdoor. Danny directed the camera a little higher, toward the windows he had observed from the outside on the drive up, and saw spotters on the inside looking out through field glasses. There were two snipers on each side of the building whose placement allowed them to cover nearly the entire outside of the factory, and everything more than 100 yards away. He noticed with a jolt that there were even snipers on the windowless sides of the building who were looking out through windows disguised to look like the surrounding brickwork. He realized he had been lucky to have approached from so close that he had stayed in one of their blind spots.

"War Machine, this is Iron Fist," he whispered quietly into his communicator.

"What's your status?" Rhodey responded immediately.

"Unfortunately, this is definitely the right place."

"Why 'unfortunately'?" Rhodes asked skeptically.

"It looks virtually impregnable. I count four or five guards each at the front and back doors. Four machine gun emplacements along the front and back walls at ground level. Looks like the machine guns are behind garage doors with sandbag barricades in front of them. First sign of an attack, they can raise the doors a couple feet and start hosing the area with lead. They have snipers and lookouts all along the catwalks who can see nearly everything that approaches. One person can approach carefully without being seen, but one person can't do too much against all their preparations. I even see a quick-response team, strength over thirty, near the middle of the room. These guys really don't skimp on defenses," Danny observed wryly.

"Any sign of Tony?"

"Negative. He must be in one of these side rooms or something; he's not visible anywhere."

"Hmm," Rhodey thought. "We're less than a minute out. We'll make our plan when we get there."

"No, stay back," Danny whispered emphatically. "They'll see or hear you and we'll lose the element of surprise."

"What do you propose?"

"There's no way for us to have the element of surprise for long, so the next best thing would be a major distraction, right? Like a flash-bang? I'm thinking you need to attack from the front with everything you've got to draw their attention. As soon as they're focusing exclusively on you, Power Man and Ms. Marvel come in and attack from the rear. They will have no idea which way to react, fighting on two sides," Danny explained.

"Not a bad idea. What about Tony?" Rhodes asked. "The moment we attack, odds are they'll either whisk him away, execute him, or blow him to pieces."

"Not if Mockingbird and I get to him first," Danny replied. "The moment you appear, we drop in through the access hatch, eliminate their snipers and lookouts, and make our way to whatever hole they have Stark stashed in."

Rhodey was silent for a moment, weighing the merits of Danny's plan. "Sounds like the best chance we're going to get," he said slowly. "I'll pass it on to the rest of the team. Five minutes to get into position, and then we make our move."

* * *

Steve Rogers looked around the briefing room dramatically. "Anyone have any questions?" he asked, looking at each person in turn. Clint, Natasha, Bruce, and Vision all shook their heads.

"What can I do?" a small voice asked from the far end of the table. Pepper had insisted on accompanying Natasha when she received the call about the briefing, despite Natasha's insistence to the contrary.

Steve thought for a moment. Unfortunately, he knew all too well how dangerous it was to place civilians in harm's way; the civilian toll from the Chitauri invasion had been catastrophic. At the same time, however, he recognized the look in Pepper's eyes; it was the same one he'd worn himself the first four times he had applied to the Army. She was determined to do her part while all those she considered friends were placing themselves in danger to rescue the man she loved.

And yet, Steve really couldn't justify placing her in danger; what would it do to Tony if he somehow survived his capture, only to find out that his team leader had placed his beloved in danger and she had been killed? Steve had gotten to know Pepper a little since moving into the Tower that was as much hers as Tony Stark's; she had the tenacity to get herself involved somehow if he didn't find a way for her to help right now.

Eventually, he settled on what he hoped would be an adequate solution. "We need someone to monitor all our communications and keep me up to speed on the tactical situation. We also need someone to act as a liaison between myself and Lt. Col. Rhodes. Normally that would be Phil Coulson's job, but S.H.I.E.L.D. personnel have been staying away from the Tower since this whole business started. Would you be able to do that?"

"What would I be doing?" the redhead asked skeptically.

"Your job would be to stay in the command center and monitor the various displays. They'll show our vital signs, display our location and the location of suspected enemy forces, that sort of thing. If it looks like the enemy is doing something we didn't anticipate, you let me know and help me determine an appropriate reaction. If someone gets low on ammunition, you let us know so we can find a way to resupply them. Additionally, you stay in contact with Team B to inform them of our tactical situation and liaise between them and us," Steve explained.

"You don't think I can handle anything other than sitting at a computer while the rest of you go out and try to save Tony?" Pepper asked, her temper—even-tempered as she normally was, she'd had a short fuse ever since Tony had been captured—flaring.

"Ma'am, after seeing the way you handle Tony, I don't think there's _anything_ you can't handle," Steve said delicately, putting his hands up defensively. "However, I don't think _I_ could handle being the one to explain to Tony that I somehow let you get hurt while he wasn't around! Besides, monitoring our progress from the command center is a very important job."

"Pepper, we all know how much you are capable of," Natasha said quietly, taking the other woman's hand in hers, "but we also do not want you getting hurt. Tony wouldn't want that, either. You can help us far more by keeping things organized in the command center."

"Fine," Pepper sighed, "I'll stay in the command center and not go charging into the street with an Uzi."

"How awesome would it be to see _that_!" Clint whispered in Natasha's ear. She simply smirked and arched an eyebrow at him.

"That's settled, then," Steve said, getting up from his chair and striding for the door. "Everyone get to your positions. We make our move in five minutes. Pepper, let Rhodey know what we're doing."

* * *

"Avengers Command to War Machine," Pepper spoke into her headset. She was standing in the command center in front of the holoboard, which was displaying a map of the area surrounding Avengers Tower, with green figures representing the Avengers' locations and red representing the suspected locations of the enemy forces arrayed against them. Off to her right a computer monitor was displaying the Avengers' step-by-step plan of attack, complete with diagrams and contingency plans. On her left, a different computer monitor displayed the vital signs for each of the four Avengers, as well as the VISION android's power, damage, and ordnance levels. A screen popped up on the display in front of her indicating that JARVIS had just begun jamming the enemy radio signals and activated the Tower's powerful wireless signal jammer. In her right hand she held a mug of fresh coffee, though the hand was trembling in a way which she couldn't blame on caffeine.

"Avengers Command, this is War Machine," came the prompt reply. "Who am I talking to?"

"Rhodey, how far back do we go and you can't recognize my voice?" Pepper laughed.

"Pepper, of course I can recognize your voice!" Rhodey grinned. "I wasn't sure if it was you or if Tony had created another android based on someone he knows to keep his missions organized!"

"Oh, he'd _better_ not do that!," Pepper said with feigned anger. "Nope, it's just little old me."

"We wouldn't have it any other way. What can I do for you?"

"Team A is beginning their assault against the siege forces in Manhattan in under four minutes, at exactly 1400," Pepper reported. "What is Team B's status?"

"We have located the factory where Tony is almost certainly being imprisoned. We also decided to attack at exactly 1400."

"Have JARVIS patch your team's attack planning system over to the Avengers Command Center; I'll monitor it from here and do what I can for you," Pepper ordered.

"I'd ask if you can handle that much responsibility," Rhodey said with a chuckle, "but you organize Tony Stark's life. Of _course_ you can organize two complex battles in two different states simultaneously!"

* * *

"Both teams are attacking at exactly 1400," Clint heard Pepper say on his radio. He double checked the three camera feeds on the television monitor next to the door. One minute to go. He could feel his heart racing in anticipation. "Is everyone in place?"

"Affirmative," came the chorus of replies.

"I will transform the moment the snipers have been dealt with," Vision said.

"It's T-Time."

The door in front of Clint swung open automatically. He fired.

* * *

Rhodey took a deep breath. He was hidden in the cloud cover 1000 feet above the ground. The indicator on his heads-up display turned red.

"It's T-Time," he heard Pepper say.

He wheeled around in the air and plummeted toward the ground. His rocket and grenade launchers activated, spraying a spread of ordnance in front of him toward the front wall of the factory when he was 20 feet from the ground.


	16. Chapter 15

AN: Thanks to Sargerogue and Qweb, who reviewed last chapter. Don't worry, what started at the end of last chapter and really gets underway in this one may be the most epic battle I've written yet! And I'm not planning for Pepper to need an Uzi at any time in this story, though it is certainly not outside the realm of possibility!

* * *

War Machine fired a spread of rockets at the front wall of the factory when he was 20 feet above the ground. No sooner were they out of the barrels than he followed them up with a mix of flash-bang and smoke grenades from his RPG launchers. By this time he was turning up sharply to aim himself toward the factory wall.

The rockets impacted first, hammering the brick wall simultaneously and exploding, destroying the entire front wall of the building and sending the debris crashing down inside on top of the men hiding within. The rocket-propelled grenades flew through the opening created less than a second later and fell to the ground where they detonated, temporarily blinding and stunning all the gunmen still on their feet and filling the factory with dense gray smoke. He flew through the space where the wall had been a moment after the grenades had exploded, and landed on the ground in a crouch. He switched to thermal imaging and noticed that the heat shielding around the factory had been damaged by his assault.

The mini-gun mounted on his shoulder whirred to life and fired a spray of bullets at the gunmen who were still on their feet, causing them to drop to the floor.

"Knock, knock," Rhodey's metallic voice said.

"75% of the quick-response team in the middle of the building has moved to engage you. Also, the snipers above you were taken out in the explosion, so the other snipers in the building are shifting positions to compensate," Pepper reported. "Power Man and Ms. Marvel: Attack."

* * *

At Pepper's signal, Luke emerged from his hiding place behind a few trees on the edge of the parking lot behind the factory. He charged across the parking lot toward the rear wall with an enraged roar. When he was less than ten feet from the factory, he heard a whistling sound as Carol dove from the sky directly above him. Two powerful energy beams emerged from her hands and swept down the sides of the building and then in a line along the length of the wall about a foot above the ground. A few spots caught fire as the support beams behind the brick were struck by the energy; the bricks in a long line across the wall crumbled under the intensity of the beam.

The wall buckled and collapsed as Luke charged through it and Carol flew in simultaneously directly above him. He grabbed the nearest object—an abandoned machine gun whose operator had abandoned his post to confront War Machine—in his right hand and started swinging away with it like a club at the legs of the men running toward him. Carol landed beside him, fists glowing with barely restrained energy, and the two stood back-to-back, staring down more than twenty gunmen.

"The distraction is working. Mockingbird, Iron Fist: Go," Pepper ordered with a glance at the display in front of her.

* * *

Danny pulled the roof access hatch open as quietly as possible and slipped inside, landing silently on the catwalk beneath. He looked around and saw that he had not been noticed yet just as Bobbi dropped in beside him. He noticed a man with a sniper rifle at the end of the catwalk turning to point his rifle down at where Luke and Carol were fighting. As he turned, however, he caught sight of the two intruders on his catwalk. Before he could cry out, Bobbi had whipped out her sidearm and put two bullets in his chest. Fortunately, the noise of War Machine's mini-gun blazing away at the men he was fighting provided more than enough cover to mask the sound of the two small-caliber gunshots.

Bobbi scanned the floor below them while Danny watched the men on their level. She noticed a sliver of light against the wall of a corridor leading away from the central area. The light was coming through the crack beneath the door of a room on the far side of the factory against the wall. She put a hand on Danny's shoulder and pointed. He nodded, and grabbed a pulley to swing over to the next catwalk. As soon as he had crossed, he tossed the pulley back to Bobbi, who followed. Less than a minute later, they were directly above the corridor. Bobbi leapt from the catwalk to land on the floor, rolling as she did so to lessen the impact. Danny landed next to here and gave her a look. She nodded back, and he kicked in the door.

* * *

As soon as he had taken his first shot, Clint dove through the opening and rolled. When his momentum brought him around to his feet, he settled into a crouch and fired a second time. He breathed a little more easily when Pepper told him, "The other sniper never even got a shot off. Both your shots were direct hits; the sniper and spotter are both dead. You are free to engage your next set of targets."

Clint crawled forward across the roof to the edge on the north side. He located his first target, about a mile away on top of a department store. Clint took a deep breath, steadied himself, calculated the appropriate trajectory, aimed, and pulled the trigger. Less than half a second later, he shifted aim by an inch and fired again. He saw the results of the shots before Pepper confirmed it. He turned to the west and spied his next two targets in the overlap where they could observe the north and west sides of the building. He looked at the flag a quarter-mile away from the Tower, between him and the targets, and used that to judge the wind speed and direction. After taking a second to mentally prepare himself, he fired four bullets, with tiny pauses between to shift his aim. "That's four sniper teams down, Hawkeye; only three to go from the roof," Pepper said in his ear encouragingly.

Clint crawled army-style along the roof to the next perch he had selected, which gave him a good view of a sniper nearly two miles from the tower on the west side who was lying on the roof of a small office building. Clint calmly lined up his sights on the sniper, who seemed slightly agitated. He saw through his scope that the man was talking into his radio. Clint smirked as he aimed at a point to the left and above the sniper's head. "Not your lucky day, pal," he said as he squeezed the trigger twice. When he looked back at the sniper, the man's head had disappeared, as had that of his spotter next to him. Clint army-crawled back from the edge, turned around, and crawled over to the east side of the tower. The sniper on this side of the tower had set up on top of an apartment building a mile and a half from the Tower. Clint nearly laughed to himself at how easy these snipers were making his job. Two shots later, Mr. Dragunov was the only sniper left on the rooftops.

* * *

"Sniper Two-Five, do you copy?" Nothing. The radio was silent. "Sniper Two-Three, do you copy?" Still silent.

"Something doesn't feel right about this," the sniper muttered to his spotter.

"What do you mean?" the spotter asked.

"Our radios were all working perfectly until 2:00, but now suddenly no one's radio is working," the sniper said angrily.

"Maybe it's just that your batteries died," his spotter suggested.

"No, I changed them this morning. I'm calling it in," the sniper decided, reaching into his pocket and pulling out his cell phone. He tried pressing the call button, but the cell phone showed no signal.

"Nothing," Overwatch spat, throwing the cell phone across the roof. A glint to his north-east caught his eye. He could see the building where Sniper Two-Eight was supposed to be, and he supposed the glint was coming from Eight's scope. "Eight needs to be more careful," he observed.

"Eight?" the spotter said, glancing in that direction. He pointed his scope at Two-Eight's position. "No, he's never careless like that…"

"Hang on, we've got a problem," his spotter said a moment later. "Eight is dead; killed by a sniper's bullet." He turned his scope and looked at Sniper Two-Twelve and Two-Ten's positions north of them, and saw the same thing. "We've got a serious problem here, boss."

"We need to get moving," Overwatch said decisively, dropping to the ground and lying flat. He looked up at the roof of Avengers Tower just in time to see the glint of a sniper's scope. "MOVE!" he shouted, rolling to his right, toward the door, just as he heard a bullet's impact.

His spotter hadn't moved yet; he was still lying in the same place he had been. "John?" Overwatch called. "John!" But John was dead.

* * *

"Patch me through to Mr. Dragunov's radio, but make sure he can't call anyone else," Clint requested.

"All set," Pepper replied a moment later.

"My, how the tables have turned!" Clint taunted into his radio.

"Who the hell is this?" the voice on the other end demanded.

"I'm hurt," Clint replied. "You tried to kill me three days ago, and you don't even know my name?"

"So you're the one they call 'Hawkeye,' eh? They told me you were good. Guess they were wrong." Clint watched as the other sniper took aim at his position and fired. The instant the other shot, Clint pulled his own trigger.

"Yeah? Well, thirteen of your buddies, including your own spotter, would beg to differ with that assessment," Clint taunted. "Oh, and take a look down at the building halfway between your building and mine where another one of your buddies is perched in the window of the fifth apartment from the east on the third floor. I know you can see it; I even _planned_ it so you could see it."

Clint watched the scope shift and point down at the apartment building Clint had indicated. There, in the middle of the roof, directly above an unsuspecting sniper's perch, were two sniper rounds fused together: the Dragunov's 7.62×54mmR round and Clint's own .300 Winchester Magnum round. He smirked as he heard a muttered curse through the communicator in his ear. "Are you friends with that sniper? Don't worry, I won't draw it out nearly as much with him. So, were they wrong?"

"No, you are certainly impressive, Hawkeye, but I'm better!" Overwatch suddenly turned and fired another round at Clint's position on top of the Tower. Clint laughed as the bullet embedded itself in the wall in front of his position, throwing shards of brick up at him. He winced a little as a couple shards grazed his left arm and it started to bleed.

"Impressive miss. You actually sort of got me that time," Clint taunted, pulling his own trigger. "But now it's my turn." His round impacted on the roof where the other sniper was perched, passing through the tiny gap between his legs and grazing his thighs. Clint heard him cry out in pain as the bullet burned a line through both his pants legs as it passed.

"Neat trick," the other grimaced through the pain. "But I think I've had enough fun for one day. You're forgetting that I still have the trump card." He reached into his pocket and pulled out a black box. He placed his thumb on the red detonator button and said, "Say good-bye to your metal friend!"

Clint was firing even before the words had left Overwatch's mouth. He fired two bullets: The first destroyed the detonator, and the second hit Overwatch's right thumb. He let out another pained cry. "I wouldn't do that if I were you," Clint scolded with a smirk.

Overwatch reached for his sniper rifle with his uninjured hand and said, "You think any of this is going to stop me? I've had enough of this game, Hawkeye. It's high time to end this." He raised his rifle again and fired another round at Clint.

The round never left the muzzle. Anticipating the other's shot, Clint had fired as he was raising his rifle and aiming it. His bullet flew into the Dragunov's muzzle, plugging it closed. The other sniper's cartridge exploded in the barrel, sending shards of the barrel back into Overwatch's face. He dropped his rifle and brought both hands up to cover his face, crying out once more in pain.

"You really think you're better than me?" Clint demanded. The other sniper was silent except for a whimper.

"Yeah, you're definitely better than me!" Clint taunted, pulling his trigger again. "You're definitely better at shooting civilians." The bullet hit the other sniper in the leg. He cried out and pulled the injured leg up to cradle it against his chest. "You're definitely better at being spotted; you're such an amateur you didn't even move after broadcasting your position to us!" Clint shot him in the other leg. Then he pulled the trigger once more. "But I think we both know who the better sniper is." The final shot hit Overwatch in the back as Clint said the last word, and traveled straight through to his heart.

"I think you got him, Hawk," Steve observed wryly.

"That disgrace won't be shooting any more civilians any time soon," Clint responded, prying the rooftop ventilation grate aside and slipping into the opening, a thin trail of blood following him from his injured arm. "Just eight snipers to go."


	17. Chapter 16

AN: Thanks to Qweb, Sargerogue, and TheNaggingCube for reviewing the last chapter. Glad people are enjoying this, especially how Clint eliminated Overwatch. I didn't want it to just be a "2 shots and done" kind of ending, since the guy's been so central in Clint's handling of this whole situation. Besides, you have to remember that at the beginning of the story Overwatch nearly killed Clint and then assassinated an innocent bystander directly in front of Avengers Tower.

Now, back to Team B.

* * *

Bobbi grabbed Danny's arm and pulled him out of the doorway and down to the ground the instant the door shattered under his boot and she got a glimpse of the scene inside. No sooner were they out of the doorway than a hail of bullets came through the opening, peppering the opposite wall.

"I think we picked the wrong room!" Bobbi shouted.

"Ya think?" Danny shot back angrily, crouching next to the doorway. Inside they could hear someone shouting a combination of orders and curses in Spanish. "At least we found those cartel soldiers," he grumbled.

"Got any bright ideas for taking on a small army packing Mac-10s?" Bobbi asked with a glance, dodging out of the way as the gunmen started firing into the wall behind which they were crouching.

"Think we could go through the ceiling?"

"One way to find out," Bobbi replied, leaping up to grab onto the edge of the walkway running above the room in question along the length of the factory wall. Her fingertips just barely caught on the lip, but she managed to keep her grip and pull herself up. Danny clambered up next to her, and the two Avengers crouched to avoid notice by the snipers on the catwalks above them. Fortunately, they were too busy dealing with the triple threat of War Machine, Power Man, and Ms. Marvel to pay any attention to the other two Avengers.

Iron Fist concentrated his chi energy in his right fist, and brought it down directly above what they took to be the center of the conference room full of Colombians they had disturbed. A panel of the ceiling caved in and fell onto the table below. First Mockingbird and then Iron Fist dropped through the opening. As soon as she landed, Mockingbird tucked and rolled to the end of the table closest to the door. Behind her, Iron Fist did the same, so the two of them were crouching on opposite ends of the table. Before she had even finished rolling, Bobbi whipped out her batons and flicked them out to their full length. She swung them out to either side as she came out of her roll, smacking a pair of surprised drug cartel hitmen in their heads. Rather than stun them, however, the action merely enraged them.

"You want some, boys?" Bobbi taunted, arching an eyebrow suggestively at the mob surrounding her. "Come and get some!"

With that, she sprang off the table feet first directly into a man's chest. He grunted in surprise and pain as he fell backward and Bobbi used him to propel herself to the right toward a crowd of men. She swung her batons fiercely. She hit the man in front of her with both batons in his left side, cracking a rib. She increased the pressure on that man's side by using him as a springboard to bring her legs up into the air and wrap them around the neck of a man standing on her right. She squeezed his neck with her thighs and used her body weight to pull him down and snap his neck—it was a trick the Black Widow had taught her during her third year with S.H.I.E.L.D. As soon as she hit the ground, she released the man's limp body and let his momentum carry it into another man behind her. From the ground she cracked two men in the knee with her batons, forcing their knee out of joint and following it up by swinging the batons up into their crotches. The two men fell to the floor without a sound.

Behind her, Danny was fighting a score of men with his bare fists. The moment Bobbi leapt off the table, he slid off it himself and swung his left fist into the nearest man's chin, lifting him into the air. He followed the punch up with a kick to the stomach, throwing the limp man back into three of his comrades. He heard the sound of guns being cocked and fell to the ground an instant before the men standing behind him started firing at the spot where he had been standing. Before the gunmen could lower their aim, he swung his leg around, catching the two closest to him and sending them careening to the floor. Just before one hit the ground, Danny brought his other foot up and kicked the man as hard as he could into the cluster of gunmen who were still firing at him. The moment the guns were silenced, Danny sprang to his feet to press his advantage. As one man started trying to rise to his knees, Danny grabbed the back of the man's head and slammed it down, bringing his knee up at the same time. The man fell to the floor with a groan. Danny found himself standing next to the table, so he grabbed the edge with his right hand, swung his legs up into the air, placed his other hand on the table edge, and pushed himself off in one fluid motion, sending himself flying feet first into a man's chest. The man fell crashing backward into the man behind him, while Danny sprang off him in the opposite direction toward yet another enemy. That man received a chi-infused punch to the head as Danny regained his footing on the ground and crouched into a defensive stance.

Danny saw out of the corner of his eye that Bobbi was retreating from the crowd of men on her end of the conference room. She flung herself backward away from the men's outstretched arms, landed on her hands, and flipped backward through the air hands over heels. Danny stepped forward and Bobbi in one fluid motion kicked the man standing behind him with both feet, landed in a crouch on the downed man's chest, snapped her batons together into a bō-staff, and spun it around her body, tripping up the five men clustered around them.

As she was doing that, Danny noticed that the men on the other end of the room were bringing their guns up to fire at them. He concentrated his chi energy in his right fist and stepped toward the conference table with his right foot, bending his knee to avoid the spinning bō-staff just as it reached his leg, and punched the edge of the conference table with his right fist. The table surged forward six feet and slammed into the men standing at its other end, pinning them against the wall and doorway.

Iron Fist and Mockingbird looked around the room for the first time since breaching, and realized that none of the men were moving. Bobbi gave Danny a small smile, and Danny let out a breath.

"Iron Fist, Mockingbird, what's your status?" Pepper demanded in their ears, causing them to flinch.

"Alive," Iron Fist said wryly.

"We just took on a small army of Colombian cartel soldiers," Mockingbird replied. "Still no sign of Iron Man."

"Keep looking," Pepper ordered. "There are a few rooms south of your position."

"Roger." The two Avengers started climbing over the conference table to leave the room.

* * *

Luke roared at the circle of men surrounding him and Carol. A couple jumped backward, but the rest merely tightened their grip on their assault rifles. Behind him, Carol raised her glowing fists. They waited only a second before Carol nudged Luke's leg with her foot. The two charged in opposite directions simultaneously.

Luke ran forward, swinging the machine gun/club in his right hand low and taking out the legs of the first man on his right. He grabbed a piece of factory machinery with his left hand and ripped it from the floor, dropping the machine gun at the same time. He gripped the massive piece of machinery with both hands, swung it up over his head, and threw it forward at the crowd of men standing in front of him. A couple in the front managed to duck out of the way because they saw it coming, but the rest were bowled over as it landed on top of them. Luke followed it up by grabbing his machine gun/club off the floor and swinging it at those who were still on their feet. They went down without a sound.

Carol, meanwhile, had leapt into the air and flown toward the men on her side of the ring, shooting energy from her left fist into the group on her left side as she went. The men were so startled when she took off that they did not have a chance to shoot. She stopped firing energy as she reached them, instead bringing her right fist forward to punch the man directly in front of her in the gut. He fell backward as Carol spun in midair and spread her arms out to sweep through the ring of men on her right.

When she had knocked all the men to the ground, she heard the sound of a man rising to his feet and cocking his assault rifle behind her. Carol spun on her heel and fired a burst of energy at him, melting the bullets he had fired before turning his rifle into a piece of molten slag.

* * *

Luke felt what seemed like a hundred bee stings as the men he'd left behind him started firing at him. Mentally thanking the experimentation that had given him such extreme durability, he turned around, careful to protect his vulnerable eyes, and threw his machine gun end over end at the men firing at him. The machine gun cleared out the men in the middle of the cluster, leaving the two on the ends still standing. Luke walked forward amid a steady stream of bullets to stand between the two men, who were still firing. He suddenly dropped into a crouch. The last two gunmen shot each other before they realized what had happened.

He glanced down at his chest and arms, which were covered with tiny holes from where the bullets had impacted his skin. Fortunately, the first two layers of his skin had stopped most of the bullets before they reached vital organs, though several of the bullet holes were trickling blood. His right arm had taken the brunt of one gunman's attack; several bullets had impacted the same location and punctured through the skin, embedding in his bicep. He tore a strip from his gray shirt and tied it around his arm as tightly as he could manage with his left hand and mouth to slow the bleeding. He vaguely wondered why it was so quiet on the other side of the factory.

* * *

Rhodey found himself standing in a dense cloud of smoke surrounded by stunned gunmen. A moment later, the smoke began dissipating as Power Man and Ms. Marvel burst through the wall, creating cross-ventilation. He saw the men around him shaking their heads slowly; those on the ground rose unsteadily to their feet. Finally, one noticed the metal man in the room, whipped his gun up to his shoulder, and fired. The rest quickly followed suit.

The barrage only lasted 30 seconds before their magazines clicked empty. Rhodey quickly checked the suit's damage status and found that none of the bullets had done any damage beyond one that had cut the primary control wire for his left leg; the secondary control was just fine.

"Not bad," Rhodey smirked. "If I weren't wearing a suit that can withstand anti-tank missiles, surface-to-air missiles, RPG explosions, mines, and ICBM detonations all at the same time, that might actually have hurt! But now it's my turn." With that, the mini-gun's bullet feeder spun to life and the assault rifle barrels in his forearms activated. He crouched down to one knee as the rifles began firing more than 60 rounds per second and swung his arms in a circle around him. The process took less than two seconds before all the gunmen on the ground level were dead.

A sniper round hit the mini-gun's mounting at that moment, passing through it and destroying its control wire. Rhodey's heads-up display showed him the locations of all six snipers. He looked up at the man who had shot his mini-gun and said, "I _like_ that gun." Six missiles shot out of his shoulder-mounted missile launchers and hit the six snipers' rifles, shattering the barrels and sending shrapnel into the snipers' faces.

"Factory main level neutralized," Pepper reported to him, "but still no sign of Tony."

* * *

Clint carefully, silently removed the grating from the ventilation opening on the south side of the building. The last sniper was in an apartment building south-east of the Tower, ten floors below Clint's height. Unfortunately, his placement made it impossible for Clint to shoot him from any other ventilation grate, and impossible to continue with their plan before eliminating him. Clint slid further forward in the vent so his rifle and right arm could reach out through the opening. He normally practiced shooting with both arms for just such an emergency, but still preferred shooting left-handed.

He carefully lined up the shot blind, taking extra care to avoid missing the sniper and hitting one of the other tenants of the apartment building.

"Clint, I think the sniper has noticed you," Pepper said worriedly. "He's aiming toward your arm."

Clint pulled the trigger, adjusted his aim by an inch, and pulled it again. He let out a sigh as Pepper's voice came through the radio again saying, "Targets eliminated. Proceed with phase two."


	18. Chapter 17

AN: Thanks to Qweb and TheNaggingCube, who reviewed last chapter. Let me know if the way I'm breaking up the battle and switching between scenes is confusing; if it is I will see about adjusting things to make it more continuous somehow.

* * *

"Proceed with phase two," Vision heard Pepper say. He immediately stepped off the sidewalk into the entryway of a boarded-up bookstore next to his position. With a glance up and down the street to make sure no one was watching him, he activated his transformation process. Ten seconds later, the android, now with a dark red face and green-and-gold body, stepped back onto the sidewalk.

He stepped off the sidewalk and into the intersection one block south of the Tower and three blocks east. When he reached the middle of the intersection, he pointed his right arm down the street north and looked down the street west. Finding his two targets, he fired simultaneously.

A high-powered anti-tank missile rose out of his right arm and streaked off its launcher down the street. It tore through the rear door of a brown UPS truck which had just begun opening its doors. Using the traffic cameras in the intersection, Vision had a brief glimpse of two black-clad figures and a long tube inside the delivery truck. The two figures dove away from the launcher just before the missile's warhead detonated, engulfing the entire truck in flames. There was a secondary explosion as the ordnance inside the truck blew up.

At the same time, sun fire shot out of the focusing crystal set in Vision's forehead toward a Fed Ex truck parked half a block down the street. The truck's rear doors had begun opening the moment Vision stepped off the curb, and a pair of men in black combat gear holding AK-47s appeared. Vision had a brief but satisfying glimpse of the shock and fear on the driver's face as he tugged at his door before the sun fire melted through the truck's engine block and hit the fuel line. As before, there was a primary explosion followed shortly by a secondary explosion as the rockets in the cargo area exploded. The two men who had leapt out of the back were flung back by the force of the explosion. They didn't move again.

"I think we got their attention," Vision observed wryly as the second rocket launcher team on that street, this one in another UPS truck, pulled out of its parking spot five blocks west of him.

"Excellent," Pepper said. "Phase three."

At that moment four things began happening at once.

* * *

First, the wall of Avengers Tower's 121st and 122nd floors on the south side of the tower began sliding down into the wall of the 120th and 119th floors to reveal the built-in hangar and launch pad. As soon as the wall had slid down entirely, the launch pad began to slowly extend out, revealing a quinjet closest to the opening and behind it a small back-up helicopter, spare parts littering the floor around it. Standing in front of the quinjet, however, was a small, stocky man with black hair, shirtless and barefooted, but wearing a pair of extremely stretchy black pants.

Bruce Banner wore a confident smirk as he bounced up and down on the balls of his feet while shivering slightly on the edge of the launch pad. He watched as two blocks south of the Tower, a studio apartment's two windows were opened, and the barrel of a FIM-92 Stinger surface-to-air missile launcher poked out through the each open window. The two operators depressed their triggers simultaneously and a pair of Stinger missiles were thrown out of their launch tubes by the tubes' built-in ejection motors. The Stingers' rockets ignited and they crossed the distance between the operators and the Tower's launch pad in a matter of seconds.

Before the missiles had crossed half the distance, however, Bruce growled as he grew six feet taller and turned green. His arms and legs thickened to five times their normal size and the muscles rippled and became as strong as trees, filling his stretchy pants nearly to the bursting point. He reached out one massive hubcap-sized hand in each direction and caught a Stinger missile in each one. He pulled the two missiles off course, drawing them closer to his body, and smashed them together in front of him. They exploded in a shower of shrapnel and propellant.

The surface-to-air missile team could only watch in shock and horror as a massive green beast leapt through the ensuing cloud of flames and smoke with a heart-stopping bellow, bridging the gap between the Tower and their observation post in a matter of seconds. Five men reached for AK-47s, knowing all along that it was a hopeless effort.

* * *

As the Tower launch pad was activating far above him, the Vision android leapt into the air a block south of the Tower and three blocks east. He activated his foot thrusters, jetpack, and flight stabilizers and flew down the street west, his eyes focused exclusively on the UPS truck careening toward him, changing lanes every few seconds heedless of the traffic around it in a vain attempt to throw Vision off course.

When Vision and the truck were nearly on top of each other, Vision suddenly deactivated his thrusters and activated his Pym-Particle-infused armor, increasing his density to twenty times its normal level. He dropped from the air like a rock, and smashed feet first straight through the roof of the delivery truck's cargo area. Before he hit the ground, he deactivated the Pym Particles and reactivated his thrusters so he came to hover less than an inch from the floor. There were a pair of extremely stunned mercenaries staring at him while standing next to a Javelin missile launcher. The man on the left recovered more quickly than the other and reached for the AK-47 leaning against the wall next to him.

Vision moved more quickly than the man, however. Before the man's fingers could close around the barrel, Vision swung his left fist at him in a powerful uppercut, enhanced slightly by increased density, throwing him back into the truck's rear door, which burst open as the mercenary hit it. The man landed on the roof of the sedan three cars behind the truck, stunned. On seeing his partner thrown from the truck like a rag doll, the other meekly raised his hands in surrender. The truck skidded to a stop in the middle of the street.

* * *

The sound of the explosion when Vision had destroyed two of the five rocket launcher teams carried for several blocks. When the assault team waiting in a gym across the street from the Tower's south entrance heard the explosion, they were stunned at first. The leader quickly realized what must have happened, however, after he heard the Hulk's roar carry down from 121 floors above his head.

The assault team leader mobilized his twenty men quickly. Half had been in the weight room, but they returned to the lobby as soon as they heard the explosion.

"Our orders are to stage a direct attack against the Tower lobby if anything happens. I think this qualifies. Any questions?" the leader demanded. Seeing his team's silence, he ordered them to prepare to move out. The twenty men pulled assault rifles, machine guns, and RPG launchers out of their gym bags and raced out of the gym toward the Tower.

They had crossed only half the distance when they saw the Black Widow and Captain America step out of the Tower lobby and walk toward them. The team leader raised his AK-47 to his shoulder to fire.

* * *

One block directly north of the tower, there was a loud _crack_ as a funnel cloud appeared directly above the median in front of the Avengers Tower parking garage entrance. When the cloud had disappeared, six figures stood in the center of the circle, facing outward.

Facing west were three men dressed in plate armor. The first, with blond hair and goatee, wielded a saber in his right hand. Next to him was a man with a long brown beard whose face was covered with wrinkles betraying his age. He held a battle-axe in his powerful grip. The third man, whose black hair was held back in a tight bun and had a darker complexion, pulled out a mace and pressed a button on the handle, causing sharp metal spikes to poke out of the ball.

The other three figures faced east. The woman standing on the left, who wore her black hair in a ponytail, drew a small brown handle out of her shield. She pushed a button in the center, and a blade shot out of either end. Standing on the right was a blonde woman whose hair fell halfway down her back in waves. She wore a gleaming silver breastplate, leather chaps, and a royal blue cape. In her hand she brandished a brilliantly-gleaming broadsword.

The man standing in the middle, flanked by the two warrior women, had shoulder-length blond hair and wore a gleaming iron breastplate with six polished stone medallions set in it. Steel scale mail covered his arms, and a deep red cape billowed from his shoulders. In his right hand he held the mighty war hammer Mjölnir.

On the screen in the command center displaying Team A's vital signs, Pepper added six new spaces for the Asgardians who had just joined the fight. "Welcome back, Thor," she said.

"I am grateful to be here, my lady," the Asgardian responded, using the communicator he had kept on returning to Asgard from his last trip to Midgard. "I admit I was surprised to receive the Captain's message. Heimdall mentioned trouble; I had no idea he meant _this_!"

"Let's just see about getting Tony back now," Pepper answered, relief evident in her voice. "You'll have to introduce us to your friends afterward, though."

"Friends, you have your orders. If we fail, we shall dine together in Valhalla! Attack!" Thor sprang forward with a roar, charging toward the DHL truck that JARVIS had identified as an enemy rocket team. Sif and Valkyrie raced after him down the street.

Behind them, Volstagg let out a cry of "For Asgard!" as he led the Warriors Three against the other rocket launcher team, this one in a Fed Ex truck.

When the driver looked into his side mirror and saw a trio of strangely-dressed men running toward him waving a sword, a mace, and a battle-axe, he was so startled that at first he didn't react. The two men in the back of the truck, however, saw the Warriors Three through their window and threw the back doors open. Ignoring the Javelin missile launcher between them, the men reached for the AK-47s by their feet. When the Warriors were about half a block away, the two mercenaries opened up on them with their assault rifles. Fandral and Hogun dove to the side behind rows of stopped cars to avoid the hail of bullets, while Volstagg held his axe head in front of his face to deflect some of the bullets and continued charging, heedless of the bullets hitting his armor.

While the gunmen were concentrating on Volstagg, Hogun leapt atop the cars he was hiding behind and flung a pair of throwing knives at the delivery truck. They narrowly missed the two gunmen because at that instant the driver stepped on the gas. However, the knives flying in front of their faces and sudden acceleration distracted the two men in the back just long enough for Volstagg to reach the truck. As he reached it he slid under it feet first and drove his battle-axe up into the undercarriage.

Fandral, meanwhile, had snuck up on the driver's side of the truck by hiding behind the cars in the next lane. As Volstagg slashed through the rear floor, he leapt out from behind the stopped cars and stabbed his saber through the driver's open window, less than an inch in front of his neck. Only the driver's quick reflexes enabled him to slam on the brakes fast enough to avoid slicing his own neck open on the blade, though it still left a thin red line across his neck. He took his hands off the wheel in a gesture of surrender.

In the back compartment of the truck, the two gunmen were far from surrender. They had turned their guns toward the floor, and the axe blade sticking through it. While they were distracted, however, Hogun caught up with the truck, leaping from car roof to car roof. He jumped in through the open door and swung his mace at the first man's chest. He was slammed back into the side of the truck as Hogun used the momentum to swing his left leg up and kick the other gunman against the opposite side.

His two companions joined him in the back of the truck, and together they bound their three prisoners with cords. It was only then that Volstagg looked down at the bullet holes peppering his armor and felt the pinpricks of the ones that had passed through.


	19. Chapter 18

AN: Thanks to dancin penguin, TheNaggingCube, and Sargerogue, who reviewed last chapter. Also, thanks to those who have followed or favorited this story. This is now the longest story I've posted on here chapter-wise. So, do you want to know why Thor brought a small Asgardian army into a situation he could easily handle by himself _without_ a techno-magical hammer?

* * *

Thor grinned in exhilaration as he charged toward the last rocket team, remembering the conversation that had led to him leading a small Asgardian army to the aid of his new Midgardian team.

* * *

"_So just where do you think you're going, Thor?" Volstagg had asked as Thor rose from his place at the long table in the royal banquet hall._

"_My friend, you know that I must go to the aid of my comrades on Midgard now," Thor had replied with a grin, picking up Mjölnir from its place next to his chair. He opened the case in which he kept the Midgardian communication device that Tony and Steve had given him and said, "Remember the message I received from Captain America yesterday? My friend Tony Stark was captured and is being held hostage. I must assist my Midgardian comrades in rescuing him."_

"_Oh, we remember that conversation, all right," Fandral answered with a laugh. "Before now, every time you've gone to Midgard it's been the same story: 'I am merely going to call on the Lady Jane.' And then when you returned you regaled us with the tales of the great battles you fought with your Midgardian allies, the 'Avengers' as you call them. Meanwhile, the three of us have sat in the banquet hall and watched Volstagg eat. Have we five not fought together on many occasions over the centuries? The last two times we fought together were in Jotunheim and then against the Destroyer on Midgard. Why should you get all the fun these days while we remain here idly?"_

_Thor had glanced at the timepiece on the wall. He had less than ten minutes to get into place in the Bifröst chamber. He looked back at the eager expressions on Volstagg's and Fandral's faces. Hogun sat impassively on the other side of Fandral, but Thor could see the anticipation of battle in his eyes. Sif, meanwhile, was calmly eating a sandwich and feigning disinterest in the proceedings, though the way she leaned forward into the conversation betrayed her interest. He grinned and said, "Very well, my friends, I should be glad to have you fight by my side this day. But we must be off at once."_

_Lady Sif and the Warriors Three rose immediately from the table. Thor laughed and rolled his eyes when he saw that they were already prepared for battle. He turned and strode purposefully out of the banquet hall, followed by his four closest friends. Just before leaving the city, he saw the familiar features of Lady Brunnhilde, the leader of the Valkyrior, standing by the gate, clad in breastplate and armor._

"_Where are you five off to?" she asked, raising an eyebrow at them._

"_We go to the aid of my Midgardian friends, though I suspect from your dress that you already know that," Thor replied, glancing up and down at the woman's armor and the broadsword in her hand. "Do you wish to join us?"_

"_I saw the Midgardian spirit while carrying out my mission six months of their time ago," Valkyrie answered solemnly. "I was impressed by the hospitality and honor of your friend Stark. At that time I swore an oath to place Midgard under my protection. I will join you in this battle to rescue Stark."_

"_Then we must be in place at once," Thor answered, striding past her down the bridge to the Bifröst entrance. "I trust you already know the situation and my part in the Avengers' plan, since you all had already decided to join me on this adventure?"_

"_Of course," Lady Sif replied with a laugh, testing the tip on one of the ends of her spear. "Who do you take us for; Olympians?"_

* * *

Thor confidently raced down the street toward the yellow delivery truck, Sif and Valkyrie on either side of him. He watched the DHL truck pull out of its parking space and barrel down the street toward them. The door on the right side of the truck slid open and a man leaned out and fired his AK-47 at them. Sif, the only warrior he could target properly, lifted her shield and easily deflected the bullets without slacking her pace.

When the man had fired off an entire clip and realized that his rifle didn't have the desired effect, he reached back into the truck and hefted out the Javelin missile launcher. He balanced the tube precariously on the handle in front of the door while holding it one-handed to leave the other free to steady himself, pointed it toward the three Asgardians, and depressed the trigger. A tongue of flame shot out the back of the tube as the missile flew towards them. He dropped the tube to the pavement the moment the missile had left it, when the center of gravity changed too dramatically for him to compensate.

As the missile reached her, Sif sidestepped out of its way and brought one side of her spear down on the missile tube, cutting straight through it. The warhead continued onward, while the rest of the missile exploded beside Sif. She lifted her shield to protect her face and slowed for a moment before racing to catch up to Thor and Valkyrie.

By now there were less than five feet separating Thor and the truck. Thor swung Mjölnir above his head, where a bolt of lightning shot down from the suddenly-dark storm clouds overhead and struck the hammer. He brought the hammer, now ringed with electrical energy, crashing down onto the hood of the truck, crushing the engine, shorting out the battery, and stopping all of the truck's forward momentum instantly.

Valkyrie rushed past Thor just as the back door of the truck burst open and a pair of men stumbled out. One tried to steady his wobbling feet and lift his assault rifle up to his shoulder, but dropped it when he felt the point of a broadsword against his throat. "I wouldn't try that if I were you, mortal," Valkyrie advised. "I do not see the aura of impending death around you, but I could change that very quickly."

"We cannot linger, my ladies," Thor said, hurrying to her side as Sif approached from the other side of the truck with the driver in tow. "We must see to our prisoners and then join the battle to the south of the Tower."

Sif pulled a length of cord from beneath her breastplate and used it to bind the three men's hands while Valkyrie searched them to remove any remaining weapons in their possession. Finally, they left the three men lying on the sidewalk and turned to run down the street west of the Tower.

"My lady Pepper, all three men from the truck north-west of the Tower survived our assault. We bound them and left them on the sidewalk," Thor reported.

"I will have the local police come and collect them," Pepper replied. "Your friends on the other side of the street had similar success. I suspect all of you will reach Park Avenue around the same time."

* * *

Captain America and Black Widow strode purposefully into Park Avenue. At their appearance, all the traffic had stopped moving as the drivers craned their necks to see what was about to happen.

Natasha watched the man who appeared to be in charge of the assault team gathered on the other side of the street raise his AK-47 to his shoulder. She gave him a wink just has he was about to fire, when she heard the _twang_ of a bowstring a hundred feet above her. A black arrow suddenly fell from the sky and pinned his right arm to his side. The man fell to the ground with a cry of pain. The other members of the assault team looked up toward the tower in surprise, trying to find the source of the arrow.

Taking advantage of their confusion, Natasha sprang forward through the air, landed on her hands, and pushed herself off toward where the assault team was clustered around their fallen leader. She landed on her feet and cartwheeled forward, launching herself feet first toward the nearest gunman. She wrapped her legs around his neck and squeezed as her momentum brought her around to sit on his shoulders. She squeezed harder and twisted to the left, snapping the man's neck and letting his body fall to the ground as she caught the arm of the man standing next to him. As she grabbed that man, one of his companions turned to fire at her, but she twisted the man to use him as a human shield. He cried out in pain as his friend shot him. Then Natasha used him to hold herself up and kick the man who had fired in the head. She dropped to a crouch, staring at the remaining sixteen gunmen.

The sixteen men brought their guns up and aimed them at her, but before they could fire, a red, white, and blue disc flew through the air, hit two of them, and bounced back the way it had come. Captain America caught his shield in midair with his right hand and jammed it back onto his left arm without slackening his pace, charging toward the crowd around his teammate. He reached Natasha's side in another two strides and swung his shield up to crack the edge into a man's jaw and fling him back.

The remaining members of the assault team fired on the two Avengers. Steve brought his shield up to deflect the bullets, which fell in a pile at his feet. He whipped out his sidearm and fired over the shield, hitting one man in the chest. Another fell with a black arrow through his throat. There was a crash of blinding white light, and a man flew through the air into the side of a building. A glance above them showed Vision flying straight down at them, firing with his flight stabilizers as he went. A spread of rockets landed at the feet of the ten gunmen, throwing half to the ground temporarily.

Natasha got to her feet and stared down the two men pointing their assault rifles at her. Before they could even blink, she swung around into a roundhouse kick and kicked the first one in the head. The second tried to bring his gun up to fire on her, but she used the momentum of her kick to propel her away from the first man toward him. She grabbed his head with both hands and twisted sharply. He dropped to the ground without a sound.

She heard a clicking sound behind her that her brain identified as Squad Assault Weapon being activated. She was about to duck out of its way when she heard a whistling sound next to her ear and had a brief glimpse of a silver-and-leather flash next to her head. Mjölnir hit the man in the chest and dropped him flat on his back before returning to outstretched hand of Thor, who had just rounded the corner and was charging down the street with a pair of women, one of whom looked vaguely familiar. A glance behind her showed that Cap, Vision, and a trio of obviously-Asgardian warriors had finished off the remaining gunmen.

Natasha let out a small sigh of relief as she walked over to where Captain America, Vision, and the Warriors Three were shaking hands. Behind her, Thor and the two women with him slowed to a more leisurely pace now that the fighting had ended. Natasha allowed herself a small smile as she looked around at the men who had troubled her so much for the past three days, who had threatened her friends and prevented them from rescuing their host, who had opened his Tower to them. She tapped her communicator and started calling Clint.

At that moment, however, Natasha felt an unexpected searing pain in her left thigh. She numbly fell to the ground just as the report of the gunshot reached her ears. She reached down to feel her thigh, and the hand came away wet and red. She looked up to see Steve look down at her before twisting to stare wildly up into the sky, shield above his head. He was shouting something and gesturing animatedly to everyone else standing around. Only one word penetrated the haze that was starting to cloud her mind: "Sniper!"


	20. Chapter 19

AN: Thanks to TheNaggingCube for reviewing last chapter. Don't worry; you'll find out now who Clint didn't kill.

* * *

"Tasha!" Clint shouted as his partner fell to the pavement in the middle of the street over 60 stories below him. He watched her touch her thigh, and his almost-superhuman eyesight picked up the growing pool of red blood pumping out beneath her. The other eight people on the street level had taken cover behind parked cars, and were poking their heads out at odd intervals, searching the nearby buildings for signs of a sniper. Clint didn't notice them, however, his eyes were transfixed on Tasha, who was still lying in the middle of the street.

A minute may have passed before he realized that Captain America was speaking to him privately over the communicator. "Barton!" Steve was saying in his most authoritative voice. "Barton, listen to me: You need to focus!"

"She's bleeding and no one's helping her!" Clint nearly screamed in his panic, brought on by surprise and fear for his partner's life.

"We're working on it down here, but you _need to find the sniper!_" Steve ordered. "Clint, you need to put her aside for now and focus on the mission; that's the only way you can save her life."

"Fine," the other said bitterly. He watched Vision rise from his place behind a tan parked car and stride over to Natasha. The unseen sniper fired another bullet, this time at the android, whose armor deflected the bullet. Clint forced himself to take a deep breath and go into his "sniper zone," where the only things that existed were himself, his weapon, and the target.

He closed his eyes momentarily, and when he opened them again he had placed his fear for Natasha in the back of his mind. His only purpose was to find the man who had shot her and avenge the woman he loved.

Clint closed his eyes and recreated his mental map of the area surrounding the Tower. He quickly calculated the most likely source of the bullet that had hit Tasha based on where she had been standing and the time delay between the bullet and the sound. Having determined a distance and possible direction, he opened his eyes and scanned the area south of the Tower, looking for the telltale glint of a sniper's scope. What he saw shocked him as much as anything that day.

The sniper was directly across from him, and twenty floors below. How he had missed him when he was that close, Clint had no idea. He saw that the sniper was leaning a little out of his window, aiming for the exposed back of an Asgardian warrior who was crouching over Natasha's still form. Clint reached for his bow with his right hand, but rather than select a standard arrowhead, he pressed the code on his grip to choose a grappling hook. He reached back, pulled out the arrow, nocked it on his bowstring, and drew back. His left arm, which was still oozing blood sluggishly, protested the strain, but Clint drew the string fully back and released. The grappling hook flew true, latching into the wall of the office building across the street, trailing his climbing cord behind it. Without hesitation, Clint leapt from the ventilation opening in the side of the Tower into the air.

Clint fell toward the open window where the sniper crouched next to his spotter. He felt the cord pull taut and swing him into an arc. Clint held his legs up in front of him, locked his knees, and prepared for impact.

He flew through the open window feet first and collided hard with the sniper's chest. The sniper pulled his trigger reflexively, and the bullet went wide upward, lodging firmly in one of Avengers Tower's bulletproof-glass windows. Clint landed on the man's stomach with a painful crash and skidded away from him.

At that moment, all of Clint's pent-up anger and frustration from the days-long ordeal, along with his concern for Natasha, boiled back to the surface. He stumbled to his feet and walked slowly toward the sniper. He barely registered that the spotter had turned toward him and was reaching for an assault rifle sitting next to his chair; Clint whipped his Desert Eagle out of its holster and fired a single shot into the man's head without looking away from the sniper, almost without conscious thought. All of his attention was directed at the unmoving form in front of him.

Clint fell to his knees next to the man and raised his left fist. He cried out in anger as he brought it down into the man's slack face, followed by his right fist. Over and over, Clint punched the unmoving man, letting out all the emotions he had been restraining since he had learned of Tony's capture. Finally, the face was an unrecognizable mess of blood, and Clint sat back. It was only then that he realized that the gash along his left arm had reopened and begun bleeding more strongly.

As he reached to pull a bandage out of his pocket first aid kit, Clint finally heard the voice speaking in his ear.

"Barton—Clint, it's over. He's dead," Steve was saying. "Now you need to get down here."

* * *

Vision stepped into the sniper's line of sight as soon as he saw Captain America talking with Hawkeye. He increased the density of the armored plates down his back to five times their regular density, less than a second before he felt the impact of a sniper's bullet on his lower back. The bullet flattened against the incredibly dense armor, glanced off, and fell to the ground behind him.

Vision crossed the distance between himself and Black Widow's bleeding form in two strides. She had finally passed out from blood loss.

"Get her out of the line of fire!" Captain America ordered. "Bring her over here!"

Vision lifted her in his arms, careful to keep the wound above her heart. He quickly walked backwards the way he had come, using his body to shield her as much as possible. He laid her down in the protection of the tan sedan he had previously been crouching behind. He prepared to use his sun fire to cauterize the wound.

Before he could do so, however, he saw a shadow fall on the car out of the corner of his eye as one of the Asgardians ran over and fell to his knees at Vision's side. The android looked up and saw that it was the warrior who had introduced himself earlier as "Hogun." He reached down to examine Black Widow's thigh with his fingers, particularly the area around the entry wound and exit wound. He pressed two fingers to her neck to find her pulse.

"It nicked the femoral artery. She has lost too much blood," Hogun said tersely, pulling two glass vials and a strip of white cloth out of a pouch on his belt. He used one of the spikes on his mace to poke a hole in the wax seal of one filled with a dark red liquid, and poured the contents into the bullet hole, quickly wrapping the wound tightly with the cloth as soon as the vial was empty to hold the liquid in. He used his mace to poke a hole in the wax seal of the other vial, this one filled with a light blue substance, and poured that into her mouth, muttering a few words in a strange tongue as he did so. He checked her pulse again, and felt the skin around the makeshift bandage on her thigh. He nodded and leaned back against the car.

Vision scanned the assassin with his sensors. Though her blood pressure was still dangerously low, her heart had begun beating more strongly and her blood was regenerating more quickly than normal. Focusing on the wound itself showed that the tissue was already beginning to grow back and knit together. The artery itself had resealed and blood was flowing through it.

"What just happened to Black Widow?" Pepper demanded over the radio. "Her heart rate spiked when she got shot, and almost immediately started crashing. Now it's returning to normal. What happened?"

"What did you give her?" Vision asked Hogun.

"I gave her two elixirs which my people created. The first stimulates blood cell replenishment, and makes the new blood stronger than normal human blood temporarily. The second is far stronger. Centuries ago, when we first fought alongside your race, we created this elixir for those of your warriors who were injured in battle at our side. It causes the Midgardian body to mimic the regenerative abilities of Asgardians temporarily and helps injuries heal more quickly," the Asgardian responded solemnly. "It will wear off in 24 hours."

"Ms. Potts, one of the Asgardians gave her some of their medication to facilitate her healing," Vision reported over the radio.

* * *

Clint Barton had not moved since he stopped beating the sniper who had shot Natasha. He couldn't find the strength. He knew that whatever happened to her, it was his fault that it had happened. _I was responsible for locating and eliminating all the snipers. I should have double checked every possible perch, even _after_ I located what I thought was all of them._

"Clint, did you hear me? You need to get down here," Steve said, more insistently this time. "Barton, you couldn't have known there was another sniper; we had faulty intelligence."

"No, we didn't," Clint said abruptly, looking over at the M24 that the sniper had dropped by the window. "We were told that the private military contractor sent over fifteen of their best snipers. Every single one of them used the same gun, a standard version of mine. Everyone except Mr. Dragunov. He was freelance, not private military."

"Either way, it's not your fault; we all made the same assumption you did," Steve comforted. "Now, Barton, you need to get down here."

Clint looked through the window and remembered the cord from his grappling hook. He reached into his pocket for a **carabineer**, which he hooked to the harness built into his belt. He laced the cord through the [rappelling hook] and jumped out the window. He held the cord loosely in his right hand as he dropped the 43 floors to the ground. When his feet were less than three feet from the ground, Clint suddenly braked, and stopped just as his feet touched the ground. He pulled the **carabineer** off and looked around to find the others.

He saw them still on the side of the street huddling around a form lying on the ground. Heart pumping madly in his chest, Clint slowly walked over to them, dreading what he would find.

He was shocked to find Natasha sitting up, leaning back into the breastplate of a blond-haired Asgardian woman who was crouching behind her to support her. She had her eyes open and was looking around, though she still looked weak. Clint fell to his knees in front of her and reached out to touch her face with his left hand. She looked into his eyes and gave him a faint smile. He opened his mouth to speak, but she shook her head imperceptibly. He nodded back.

Steve said something into his communicator and listened for a moment. Then he rose to his feet and said, "We're still not done here. Team B still hasn't located Stark, and now that we've taken out their ambush around the Tower, it's only a matter of time before they find out we're free and kill Tony. Let's move it, people."

* * *

"Team A broke through the siege around the Tower," Pepper informed Rhodey. "They estimate that they will reach your position in ten to fifteen minutes."

"Acknowledged," Rhodey replied. "We are still searching the factory site for any evidence of where they could have stashed Tony."

"War Machine!" Luke called out from the other side of the factory. "I think I found something!"

Rhodey walked over to the other man, who was standing next to a metal panel set into the floor.

"This looks like the same design as the trapdoor we saw at that warehouse in Harlem," Luke observed.

"You mean the one that blew up when an _insect_ landed on it and nearly incinerated our teammate?" Rhodey asked, giving him a look.

"Yeah. I got a look at it while Ms. Marvel was busy turning it to slag. Definitely looks like it," Luke said, crouching down to take a closer look.

"I don't want to send anyone else to the hospital, so don't touch it," Rhodey warned.

"I don't want to _go_ to the hospital," Luke replied with a laugh. He stepped back and grabbed a motor off the floor beside him. "Here goes nothing," he said, throwing the motor into the air. It arced through the air toward the trapdoor, turning end over end as it flew. It landed on the trapdoor with a clatter.


	21. Chapter 20

AN: Thanks to TheNaggingCube for reviewing the last chapter.

* * *

Pepper already had the quinjet initialized and prepared for takeoff when the elevator dropped the group of Avengers and Asgardians off on the 121st floor less than five minutes after the battle ended. Clint immediately ran past the now-human Bruce up the ramp to take his place at the quinjet's controls, and Natasha tried to follow him.

"Where do you think you're going, 'Ms. Rushman'?" Pepper demanded, putting a hand out to stop her.

"We need to rescue Tony, remember," the other redhead replied, arching an eyebrow at her.

"Considering that you took a bullet in the leg and nearly bled out in the middle of the street ten minutes ago, you are staying right here," Pepper insisted forcefully.

"I'm fine," Natasha stated with as much force as she could muster, though she swayed slightly on her feet as she said it.

"You are staying here in the medical lab," Pepper said, grabbing her arm and dragging her back into the Tower despite her protestations.

Steve, Bruce, and the six Asgardian warriors filed into the back of the quinjet and grabbed onto the handholds along the ceiling. Clint turned around, looked at them, and said, "Without Romanoff, we've got a problem: I need a copilot/gunner to fly this thing, especially since we're heading into a possibly hostile situation."

Steve quickly activated his communicator and ordered, "Vision, we need you to copilot the quinjet for us… You know how that works; you downloaded the operation manual, right? Of course you did… Yes, this is still an extension of your programming to protect the Tower and its inhabitants… Right."

Less than a minute later, the VISION android stepped onto the quinjet's loading ramp, walked between the two rows of people, and slid into the copilot's seat next to Clint. The two silently worked the plane's controls, and took off twenty seconds later.

* * *

The instant the motor hit the hidden trapdoor, the floor under their feet began to shake like there was an earthquake. The trapdoor began sliding open along an invisible seam, and Rhodey was surprised to notice that the seam extended along the floor of the entire factory. The factory floor was separating, leaving a gaping chasm in its place. On the other side of the split, Rhodey saw Danny give Bobbi a boost to reach the catwalk above them. As soon as she was up, she reached down with her staff and pulled him up after her. Farther away, Carol leapt into the air to hover above the widening crack in the floor.

Rhodey activated his thrusters and looked over at Luke, who was still standing next to the widening crack and hadn't moved. The floor was about to disappear into the wall of the factory and knock him into the hole. Without more conscious thought, Rhodey grabbed the other man's arm and lifted him off the ground. He placed him on the catwalk, and finally looked down into the gaping hole where the floor had been.

Staring out of the hole were hundreds upon hundreds of Hammer Drones with their own mini-guns and mortars aimed up through the hole at his team.

"What the hell are those things?" Danny shouted into the radio.

"Hammer Tech," Rhodey replied. "Drones designed to replace live troops in combat. Tony and I fought about 30 of the prototypes a couple years back. I didn't think he'd managed to build any more, particularly while sitting in a jail cell."

"Evidently he did," Bobbi observed wryly.

Rhodes made a mental note to thank Tony for putting a supply of repair nanobots in his suit during the last remodel; his mini-gun's targeting control wire was already repaired. He also made a mental note to reinstall the mini lasers that he'd taken off the suit last time around because he hadn't been using them. "Hopefully Tony is down there somewhere, and these guys are Hammer's last defense around him. Team, I think it's fairly obvious what we need to do now: Attack! Marvel, you and I draw their fire. Bird, Fist, Power, take advantage of our distraction. Aim for the necks; last time around that was their weakest area."

A glance at the ordnance level indicator on his heads-up display showed that he was getting dangerously low on mini-gun rounds and missiles. He pointed his right arm at the nearest drone and fired his built-in shotgun, the weapon for which he had the most remaining ammunition. The drone collapsed as its head exploded when the spray of shot connected and tore through the armored outer layer. As one, the drones turned toward him and began firing their shoulder-mounted mini-guns at him. Rhodey pushed more power to his foot thrusters and shot through the factory ceiling as mortars exploded all around him and shrapnel deflected off his armor, followed by a hundred drones.

* * *

When she saw Rhodey fly away, Carol turned to follow after him and the drones on his tail. She waited until the last drone had left before she held both hands out in front of her in a more aerodynamic position and willed herself to fly faster to catch up to the aerial battle ahead of her.

As she came within 20 feet of the closest straggler, she bent her right arm back and punched it out in front of her, shooting a bolt of bright blue energy straight through the drone's body. It exploded in a shower of metal and plastic

By now Carol had drawn level with two more stragglers. She reached out and grabbed the arm of the one on her left, and used her grip to kick both legs straight through the chest cavity of the drone on her right. The glowing light behind its eyes went out, and it fell away. Her legs slipped out of the hole in the drone's chest as it did so.

As soon as she kicked the first drone, she twisted the arm she was holding out of its socket and used it to club that drone in the head. Finally, she pulled the now-loosened head off of the drone's neck. The drone joined its companion in its fall from the sky.

Above her, she could see War Machine fighting desperately. One drone grabbed him around the back, but his mini-gun shredded the drone's head. Two more dove from above and caught hold of his arms. Rhodey fired off rockets from his legs that embedded in the drones' backs and exploded. The force shorted out the thruster on Rhodey's left foot, and he turned over and started falling from the sky along with the remains of those two drones. JARVIS quickly rebooted the thruster system, and he began to regain altitude.

A dozen drones flew towards him, and he fired off his last two arm-mounted missiles trying to fend them off. The eight undamaged drones out of that group grabbed hold of him, and cut all their thrusters. The War Machine suit tried to compensate for the increased weight, but could not. The eight metal drones and one metal-clad man plummeted from the sky.

By then Ms. Marvel had nearly caught up to him. She ducked out of the way to avoid being hit by the mass of drones. As they fell past her, she grabbed War Machine's right hand flight stabilizer, which was still lit, with her left hand. She began channeling the energy through her body, directing it out at the drones who had latched onto him. She destroyed the drone in front of her, then moved around War Machine in a circle. The last one finally exploded in a shower of sparks when they were less than 75 feet above the ground. Rhodey reactivated his thrusters, and the two Avengers rocketed back into the sky toward the drones still hovering in the air 200 feet above them.

* * *

When War Machine and Ms. Marvel flew out of the factory through the ceiling, the drones still inside the factory continued to follow their ascent for several moments afterward. Seeing the momentary distraction, Power Man glanced over at where Mockingbird and Iron Fist were still standing on another catwalk near the wall. They both nodded back to him, and he leapt over the catwalk railing with a roar. All of the drones suddenly turned to follow his fall with their guns.

Iron Fist and Mockingbird jumped from their catwalk at the same time. Iron Fist began concentrating his chi energy in both fists as they fell.

Power Man kicked out with both feet as he drew level with the drones' heads. He kicked the nearest one hard in the chest, and it fell backward into the one standing behind it. Luke landed heavily on the floor of the hidden chamber, but forced himself to rise to his feet as quickly as he could. He grabbed the arms of the nearest drone and dodged out of the way as it attempted to fire missiles from both arms at him. The missiles flew past him and hit another drone standing behind him, which had also been preparing to fire. Luke yanked on the drone's arms and ripped them out of the socket. He spun to his right and brought the two ripped-off arms around to crack into the drone they had come from. The force knocked the drone over to its left.

Luke glared at the countless drones still crowding around him, flexed his arms, and let out an enraged bellow.

* * *

Danny punched out with both hands a moment before he landed on the ground. The chi-infused punches connected with the chests of the drone on his right side and the drone on his left. The two drones were flung backward into the columns of drones standing behind them, which were all knocked backwards to the ground. Danny landed in a crouch with his right hand on the ground as the drones fell like dominoes on either side.

Bobbi, meanwhile, swung her bō-staff like a helicopter blade the moment it was at the same level as the drones' necks. One drone's head popped off as the staff struck the spot where the head connected to the neck. When she reached the ground, Bobbi immediately sprang back into the air, using her staff to gain more height. She landed on the balls of her feet on a drone's head; it reached up to grab her. She dodged out of the drone's grasp by leaping behind it and using her staff to springboard away. Her body weight and the force of her leap made the drone lose its balance and stumble into the drone next to it. Bobbi swung her staff like a baseball bat in midair, cracking it against another drone's head.

Bobbi landed on the ground next to Danny, whose right fist was glowing like an electrical current was flowing around it. The drones surrounding them brought their weapons to bear against the two Avengers. They fired.

The instant before they did so, Bobbi planted her staff on the floor and pushed herself up to balance on the tip. Danny dropped to the floor and rolled into the crowd of drones. The hail of bullets, mortars, and missiles that the drones fired missed Iron Fist and Mockingbird, and struck the drones on the edge of the circle.

The surviving drones adjusted their aim to concentrate on Bobbi, still balanced in the air on her bō-staff. Bobbi shifted her weight so she started falling to the ground out of the drones' aim, but pushed off to land on a drone's back. She reached down into the space where the head and neck parted, and found a cluster of wires. With a pull, she ripped the wires out, and the drone collapsed to the ground. Before it had even reached the ground, she jumped onto the next drone's back.

* * *

Rhodey held both arms out toward the drones on either side of him. Carol floated behind him facing away from him, fists glowing with barely-restrained energy. At a signal, both Avengers fired into the swarm of Hammer drones surrounding them..

Rhodey rapidly shot off his shotgun shells, careful to aim them as best he could. 130 shots and 10 drones later, his chamber clicked empty. He was completely out of ammunition. Behind him, Ms. Marvel had melted through a dozen of her own drones. But there were still more than 60 drones left in the air to attack them.


	22. Chapter 21

AN: Thanks to Qweb, who reviewed the last chapter.

* * *

"Command Center, we could use some help here," Rhodey shouted.

"My indicator shows that you do not have any ammunition left for any of your weapons," Pepper responded immediately.

"Yeah, that about covers it," Rhodey said, punching a drone on his right while melting down one on his left with fire from his left hand flight stabilizer.

"Team A is en route, and they have your refill ammo compartment. Hang tight," Pepper told him.

"They'd better get here soon, or I won't need that refill anymore!" Rhodey muttered as a pair of drones took advantage of his momentary distraction to collide with him and try to knock him out of the air. Rhodey fired his thrusters and spun in a cartwheel to avoid the diving drones, while Carol blasted one with energy from her fist. At that moment, another drone rose behind her and prepared to shoot. Rhodey lifted his right hand to send a blast from his stabilizer at it—

—but the drone exploded before he had his hand all the way up.

"Miss us, War Machine?" a snarky voice called over the radio.

"Hawkeye, you have no idea," Rhodey laughed.

The quinjet emerged from the cloud cover above them, and dove for the ground. The quinjet's cannon spat fire into the cloud of drones as it approached them. A pair of compartments below the wings opened, and a spread of rockets flew out, exploding the moment they reached the group of drones. As the quinjet dove past where Rhodey and Carol were floating, the rear loading ramp opened a crack, and a long flat gray object flew out. One side was curved with smooth edges and had a jetpack on it; the other side was straight with several bumps and dips.

The ammunition compartment currently attached to the War Machine armor disengaged the moment the refill engaged and deployed out of the quinjet. The old compartment ejected from its housing and flew back to the quinjet a moment before the new one was in place. As soon as the new compartment was aligned with its housing on the back of the War Machine suit, a secondary thruster fired, pushing the ammunition compartment into place. The War Machine suit's ammunition transport system activated, and less than a minute later the ammunition indicators on Rhodey's heads-up display all switched from red to green.

Far below them, the quinjet landed and eight figures ran down the loading ramp. As soon as they were out, the loading ramp closed and the quinjet began regaining altitude, followed by a man in a red cape. Thunder rolled and lightning cracked across the sky as the clouds, which had previously been white, abruptly turned darker. A bolt of lightning came perilously close to hitting War Machine as it shot down next to him and struck the man's war hammer.

"Thor! Glad you could make it!" Rhodey greeted the Norse god/alien.

"I would not miss an opportunity to fight with my Midgardian friends," Thor replied with a laugh. He swung Mjölnir into a drone's stomach with a crack. Its chest piece caved in under the pressure, the drone fell into one of its companions, and the two fell to the earth.

Hawkeye and Vision flew the quinjet through the swarm of drones with the cannon blazing. Twenty drones turned to follow them, mini-guns firing. Clint twisted into a barrel roll and shot up higher to the north. The drones followed.

"War Machine, up for a game of chicken?" Clint asked.

"You read my mind, Hawk," Rhodey grinned, kicking up his thrusters' power. He fired a spread of missiles into the crowd of remaining drones, and shot up higher into the air. A dozen followed him as he flew south, putting as much distance between himself and the quinjet as he could.

At a signal from Hawkeye, War Machine and the quinjet turned and flew toward each other, each firing at the drones chasing the other one. When they were almost on top of each other, War Machine spun to his right, while the quinjet spun to stand on its right wing, and they blew past each other a couple feet apart and flew down the line past the drones chasing the other one. Rhodey destroyed all but four of the drones chasing the quinjet, which destroyed all the drones chasing him. A pair of missiles from Rhodey's leg-mounted launchers destroyed the last four drones.

* * *

Thor called lightning down from the sky, which struck Mjölnir, causing the ridges along its head to glow and crackle with energy. Thor swung the hammer up into the chest of the drone floating next to him. As the blow struck, the electrical current streaked out of the hammer through the drone, and from there into the ARC-reactor chest pieces of five of the drones still surrounding him and Ms. Marvel.

A stray bolt of lightning shot toward Ms. Marvel, who reached out her right hand to grab it and absorbed it into her body. She channeled the energy to her left hand, and shot a beam of blue energy behind Thor into a pair of drones that were attempting to sneak up behind him. Thor glanced back at them, noticing them for the first time as they exploded in a shower of sparks, and gave Ms. Marvel a nod.

The remaining ten drones attacked Ms. Marvel, surrounding her and cutting her off from Thor. She threw a punch at one with her right fist, using the momentum to throw her into another feet first. She kicked off that one, grabbed a third drone's head, and yanked it off.

Thor called down another powerful bolt of lightning, which he immediately shot as Ms. Marvel, who looked to be tiring in her fight against the drones. The woman absorbed the lightning bolt, and let the energy out as a massive bright blue energy sphere emanating from her body. All the drones still in the sky were incinerated in the blast.

* * *

"Miss us, War Machine?" the three Avengers in the factory heard on the communicator. Iron Fist, Mockingbird, and Power Man all looked up toward the hole in the ceiling. The distinctive wedge-shaped outline of a quinjet was just visible for a moment as it flashed past the opening. The turbines roared as the jet landed outside and took off again.

Mockingbird glanced over at the army of still-moving drones that were tightening the noose around her and Iron Fist. Suddenly, a red, white, and blue disc whistled through the air between the two Avengers, rocketing into the drone standing behind them. The disc hit the drone just where the head met the body, and the neck connectors snapped, sending the drone's head flying through the air.

Captain America's shield ricocheted off the drone into another drone's chest, and from there back to the man himself. Cap caught the shield in his right hand and jammed it back onto his left arm while leaping down into the enclosure. Bruce Banner let out a roar as he transformed in midair following the Captain. The two of them were followed by five unusually-dressed warriors.

* * *

Volstagg leapt into the opening with a bellow, Hogun and Fandral close behind him. The three aimed themselves to land near a broad-shouldered, muscular, bald, black man who was swinging a badly-mangled drone like a club. The large Asgardian noticed a drone bringing its right arm up behind him, and threw his battleaxe in midair. The axe embedded itself in the drone's chest, as the black man finally turned and saw the drone that had been ready to shoot him.

Luke dropped the drone he had been using as a club when Volstagg strode over to reclaim his battleaxe. Once he had pried it out of the drone's chest, Luke held out his hand and said, "Thanks for watching my back. I'm Power Man."

"Volstagg of the Warriors Three," the Asgardian replied, taking the extended hand. "These are my companions, Fandral and Hogun." Luke glanced over at where Hogun was standing between two drones and fighting both with his mace, and Fandral had his saber stuck in another drone's neck.

The two warriors did not have another chance to talk, when a quartet of drones approached them from all four sides, boxing them in. Luke looked at Volstagg, who nodded and charged the one to their right with a roar, swinging his battleaxe as he went. Luke turned to his left, stooped down, grabbed a pair of discarded metal legs off the floor, and threw them at the drones to his left and right before charging the drone in front of him.

When the two drones registered pieces of metal flying towards them, their processors chose to treat them as imminent threats, and launched missiles at them. When the missiles detonated and destroyed the legs, the processors attempted to find new threats, and turned to attack Luke. By now, however, Luke had already wrestled the fourth drone so that it was between him and the other drones. He kicked the drone out between its two comrades, who treated it as a threat and destroyed it. At that moment, the two halves of another drone flew into the two remaining drones, knocking them to the ground. Volstagg slammed his axe into one of them, while Power Man ripped the last one's head off.

* * *

Sif landed next to Mockingbird and Iron Fist, using her spear as a staff to break her fall. She glanced at the other woman's bō-staff in approval and said, "You have a fine weapon, though I find my spear's tips more useful in these situations." She stabbed her spear through a pair of drones simultaneously to prove her point.

"Yeah, I'm not much of one for fighting groups of homicidal robots," Mockingbird responded sarcastically, swinging her staff into the chest of a drone beside her. "I love the staff for attacking _living_ enemies, though!" She planted the staff and swung around it with her feet out, before pushing herself off feet first into the chest of a drone standing beside her.

"It is an excellent weapon for that," the black-haired Asgardian woman agreed.

Iron Fist said, "I don't need a stick to fight; all the weapons I need are the ones I was born with—with some modifications, of course!" He concentrated his chi energy in his right fist and sent an uppercut into a drone's "chin." He followed it up with a sharp kick to the stomach, sending it flying backwards into three other drones.

* * *

The rampaging Hulk tore a wide swath through the middle of the army of remaining drones, followed closely by Captain America and Valkyrie. Cap swung his shield at one of the drones on the left, knocking it up off its feet and pushing it back into the drone standing behind it. He spun and deflected a burst of assault rifle rounds from another drone, just before Valkyrie split that drone in half from top to bottom with her broadsword.

In front of him, Steve watched the Hulk pick up a pair of drones in his hands. The drones fired their mini-guns and rifles at him, but the bullets merely enraged the beast. The Hulk smashed the two drones together and threw them into the crowd of drones in front of him before plowing in after them.

Valkyrie spun around, her sword a blur, as she followed the Hulk. She grabbed his arm just as he lifted it above his head, and used his momentum to propel herself above the crowd of drones. As soon as Hulk's arm reached its zenith, she pushed herself off into a larger crowd of drones. She swung her broadsword in a wide arc as she landed; its blade, sharpened to a point less than a millimeter thick, sliced through the drones around her like a hot knife through butter. As she brought the blade behind her back, she swung it around and stabbed forward into the chest of the drone in front of her.

She pushed that drone backwards, her sword still embedded in its chest, and swung her feet around to kick out behind where the drone had been standing. Her sword smoothly slid out of its chest as she executed the move, and she landed on her feet, using the momentum to swing the sword around again.

Steve drew his revolver and fired over the top of his shield into the crowd of drones, right before swinging his shield around into the left side of the drone in front of him. The drone fell to the side, and Steve fired a round into its chest as it fell, ensuring that it was no longer a threat. He brought the gun around fluidly and fired two more into the drone in front of him, all the while trying to stay close to the Hulk's receding back.

A lull in the fighting around him gave Cap a moment to look around the room at the battle raging around him. The increased numbers had rapidly turned the tide of the battle in the Avengers' favor. In fact, a final swing of Valkyrie's broadsword decapitated the final drone. They had defeated every one of Hammer's defenses.

Only one question remained: Where was Tony?


	23. Chapter 22

AN: Thanks to Qweb, TheNaggingCube, and Sargerogue for reviewing the last chapter. Don't worry, we're going to find out where Tony is, maybe even this chapter!

* * *

Pepper looked over the command center consoles in front of her. As soon as Team A had left the Tower, she had transferred Team B's engagement in Newark to the main holographic projection table and relegated the results of Team A's siege-break operation to the pool table pushed off to the side of the room. Tiny holographic vehicles representing police vans scurried around the tower, collecting the unconscious or bound (or both) prisoners.

The screen to her right on the command center wall still showed the plan of attack which Captain America and Team A had used in New York, side-by-side with that which War Machine had submitted for Team B's assault on the factory. There were green checkmarks next to each step of Team A's plan of attack up to the end, though the board showed that the final minutes of the attack had strayed drastically from the set plan due to an exigency which they had not even considered. Team B's plan of attack, by contrast, had been thrown out the window less than five minutes in when Mockingbird and Iron Fist disturbed a veritable beehive of enemy reinforcements and deviated from the plan to deal with that threat rather than search for Tony's location.

The screen on Pepper's left was rotating automatically through three lists of vital signs and other statistics. The first screen showed all the members of Avengers Team A except for Tony and Natasha (who was sitting unhappily on the chair next to Pepper in the command center), and including the VISION android. The second screen showed all the members of Avengers Team B except for Agent Lang. The final screen showed Thor's Asgardian companions, who had each been issued a S.H.I.E.L.D. communicator and vital-monitor for the duration of the battle.

A member of the Tower's maintenance crew had brought a small television into the room so Pepper could monitor any news fallout related to the various Avengers assaults that had taken place. (Pepper had already made a note on the maintenance log to have an actual television screen installed in the command center… along with a larger coffee maker—she'd already emptied the 12-cup brewer twice) The television was flipping through the major news channels, none of which had picked up the story, making it somewhat unlikely that Justin Hammer knew what had happened. Unfortunately, that fact was small consolation to Pepper, considering the lack of information regarding Tony's whereabouts.

Pepper looked back at the holographic image of the factory, along with the screen on the side of the table showing all available information about the building in question. War Machine and Vision were both scanning the area in every way possible, and JARVIS was using their scan data to update the information on the hologram. Pepper absently watched the fourteen green figures representing the Avengers (except for Bruce, who had transformed and gone to recover in the quinjet parked outside) and their Asgardian companions wander around the holographic building in front of her.

Suddenly, Pepper saw a flash of something in the wall on the bottom level of the factory. She quickly used her hands to expand that particular part of the hologram to take a closer look. Satisfied, she glanced down at the information JARVIS had dug up related to the building's history. Another glance at the hologram strengthened her suspicion.

"War Machine," Pepper ordered, "I need you to go down and scan the west wall of the lower level. Look for electronics."

"Will do, Command," Rhodey replied, reducing his thrusters to lower himself gently to the floor from where he had been hovering near the roof. He walked over to the west wall of the factory and activated his scanner. Vision joined him a moment later, and the two of them analyzed the wall together.

"Pepper, what are we looking for here?" Rhodey asked after staring at the solid cement wall for a minute.

"There seems to be something strange about that side of the factory," Pepper reported. "A couple months ago, several of the neighbors reported hearing strange noises, like construction work. The noise stopped as soon as they reported it, but a police report documents a number of suspicious sightings in the neighborhood the week after that."

"That doesn't really mean anything," Rhodey argued.

"Not by itself, it doesn't," Pepper replied, "but taken with the fact that the warehouse on that side of the factory had a construction order filed last month for work in the basement, I think we might be on to something."

"What's so unusual about a construction order on a warehouse?" Vision asked dubiously.

"That warehouse has been abandoned for the last decade," Pepper replied simply. "There is no owner on any records. I'm telling you, that's got to be where Tony is."

Rhodey was about to respond when his scanner detected a fine line running down the wall. "Hang on, I think we might be on to something, here," he said. "This looks painfully familiar…"

He moved his right hand to hover half an inch from the wall with the palm facing the crack. The tiny probe extended out of the heel of his palm toward the crack. The crack was thinner than a piece of paper, but the probe contracted itself to less than a nanometer in thickness and entered the crack without touching the sides. "JARVIS, take over control of the suit's motor functions and lock all movement," Rhodes ordered. "I don't want a repeat of Agent Lang's experience."

"Yes, sir," JARVIS replied. Instantly, Rhodey found that his motions were entirely restricted to the space within the suit.

The probe extended deeper into the crack in the wall without meeting any resistance, until it emerged on the other side, one foot into the wall. The probe expanded back out to its original size, and Rhodey received a single grainy image before the view went white and an electrical surge jolted down the length of the probe. JARVIS severed the probe from the War Machine suit's palm an instant before the charge would have reached it, just as Rhodey shouted, "Missiles!"

* * *

In the Avengers Command Center, Pepper saw the single image from the probe flash onto the screen to her right as JARVIS immediately began analyzing it. At first glance, Pepper saw hundreds of silver, metallic-looking humanoid forms, standing eight feet tall, with long cylindrical protrusions extending from both shoulders. As JARVIS manipulated the image, however, Pepper noticed a single chair in the background, just barely visible through the legs of the figures in the foreground. The chair seemed to be made of wood, and the back was turned to the probe.

Before she could wonder at that, however, she had to turn back toward the holographic representation of the factory. The remains of the probe had exploded in the crack, using its metal fragments to seal the crack shut. War Machine and Vision had both leapt a step backward, activated their shoulder-mounted missile launchers simultaneously, and each fired a dozen bunker-busting missiles at the wall in front of them. Behind the metal-clad man and the android, the mingled Avengers and Asgardians had turned toward the noise of their teammates' cries and the missiles' impact.

The missiles embedded themselves six inches into the concrete wall and exploded, hurling shards of concrete in both directions. Captain America swung his shield up to protect himself and Agent Morse, who was standing behind him, an instant before the flying concrete reached them. Around them, the other heroes were ducking for cover or lifting shields to protect against the debris.

No sooner had the wall exploded than hundreds of energy beams shot out through the opening directly at War Machine and Vision. Rhodey barely had time for conscious thought before he activated the flight stabilizer on his outstretched right palm. Vision did the same with both hands, and the three beams met the oncoming white energy beams less than six inches from Rhodey's fist. The ball of energy grew and expanded as both sides pumped more energy into it.

By the white light put off by the mingled energy beams, Rhodey could see Hammer drones, hundreds of them, standing in rows and all firing white energy from the two cannons mounted on their shoulders. "These must be more advanced models than the ones we just fought," he called into his communicator. He noticed that the expanding ball of energy was moving closer to him, and brought up his left hand to add that beam to the mix. The energy ball returned to where it had started.

Out of the corner of his eye, Rhodey saw Mjölnir whistle past his head, though the energy ball. The war hammer slammed through the chest of a drone into the column of drones standing behind it. The number of energy beams feeding the ball suddenly dropped. A moment later a black arrow flew past him from somewhere above him, but was vaporized as the ball of white energy swallowed it up.

Rhodey's heads-up display suddenly turned red when his sensors showed that the energy ball had reached critical mass. "It's going to blow!" he shouted. Ms. Marvel plummeted toward the floor immediately from where she had been floating at ground level and shot toward the hole in the wall in an effort to absorb the uncontrolled energy.

The ball exploded an instant before Ms. Marvel reached it, while she was unprepared to attempt absorbing the energy. The concussive force of the blast shook the ground beneath their feet, launching War Machine and Vision backward through the air away from the opening. The two crashed into the opposite wall and crumpled to the ground.

Ms. Marvel, who had been closest to the blast, was pushed away in a ballistic arc that propelled her through the factory roof out of the building.

Power Man and Iron Fist, who were standing together along the north wall in the basement, stumbled as the concussive force reached them. Danny tripped on the leg of a wrecked Hammer drone and fell to the ground. Luke dropped to one knee and caught himself with his balled-up fists.

Hawkeye had been crouching on one of the catwalks and watching the scene unfold below him. When the energy ball exploded, the factory walls shook wildly, and the catwalk came detached from the wall. When he felt himself starting to fall, Clint looked around for a clear space on the floor, pushed himself away from the catwalk in that direction, and let himself fall to the ground. He landed with a thud on the patch for which he had been aiming and rolled awkwardly to kneel on his left knee. His bow came up in the same motion, and an arrow was already on the string.

Captain America and Mockingbird tumbled to the floor when the ground shook beneath them. Bobbi's staff clattered away out of her grasp as her head hit the floor. She felt the headache that had been lurking on the edge of her consciousness since the night before return with a vengeance. Steve looked over in surprise when he heard her cry out in pain.

The six Asgardians were the only ones unaffected by the energy blast, though Sif and Hogun both fell back a step. Thor reached out his hand as Mjölnir returned to him, and fixed his determined gaze on the opening in front of him, and the hundreds of drones lurking on the other side. Behind him, his friends readied their weapons and awaited his command.

Before any of them could move, however, the walls of the factory, weakened as they had been by the explosion, collapsed inward. The six Asgardians, along with Hawkeye, Captain America, and Power Man, turned to look up as they heard the factory groan above their heads. The ceiling caved in and fell into the basement, followed by the debris from the four walls. Clint, Steve, and Luke barely had a chance to duck for cover beneath destroyed drones before they were all covered by the rubble.

* * *

Bobbi's last conscious thought before the passed out was confusion that what she could see of the sky above them had turned into a swirling mass of blackness.

* * *

_Review with what you think is about to happen!_


	24. Chapter 23

AN: Thanks to Sargerogue and Qweb for reviewing the last chapter. Good guesses for Sargerogue; it is someone we've met already. Yeah, for some reason I've been beating Bobbi up a lot in this story; I honestly don't know why! You'll have to wait a couple chapters to see how she is; as for now, let's find out what the swirling blackness is:

* * *

A massive swarm of insects blotted out the sky above the collapsing factory. Palmetto bugs brought up from Maryland, cicadas, moths, butterflies, gnats, flies, and stinging insects of all varieties swarmed in a swirling mass, spinning in concentric circles around a tiny man sitting up proudly and riding a wasp.

Scott Lang surveyed the scene below him. He saw a patch of asphalt with a quinjet parked in the middle, Carol Danvers' motionless form sprawled on top of it. Beside the quinjet was the remains of the factory, which had begun to crumble and collapse into the hole where his friends were trapped. Around the factory, however, was a teeming mass of black, as ants, cockroaches, grasshoppers, and other crawling insects converged on the factory. Belowground, he knew that all the earthworms near the factory were tunneling their way through the sides of the factory basement to rescue his teammates from the rubble.

Scott leapt off his mount, returned to normal size, and fell toward the ground with a shout, followed by his massive swarm of insects. An overwhelming buzzing sound filled the air around him.

* * *

[_Several hours earlier_]

"_Doctor, how is he?" Wanda demanded, loose brown hair flowing down in a mess behind her head and bright scarlet skirt hem billowing around her ankles, as she burst through the door to the helicarrier's Intensive Care Unit._

"_Still unconscious, though his BP has stabilized and his body has been accepting the skin grafts," the Chief Medical Officer replied. "He's still in a medically-induced coma, though, and I don't want to wake him up yet. Why? What's the matter?"_

"_No time to explain. I need to see him right away. He needs to get out of here as soon as possible," Wanda Maximoff said urgently, trying to push her way past the confused doctor._

"_Now, just wait a minute," the man said, moving to block her way. "This man was nearly incinerated two days ago! He has second- and third-degree burns covering 47% of his body! He will need _months_ of intensive treatment and physical therapy before he can even _walk_ again! He isn't leaving this _medical ward_ today, let alone marching off to war!"_

"_You do not understand the situation," Wanda insisted, red magical energy swirling into existence around her right hand. "All of the Avengers are in danger, and he is the only one who can help them."_

"_This is _my_ medical ward, and you cannot barge in here and tell me what to do with _my_ patient!" the doctor growled._

_Wanda held her hand up with the palm down, pointed it at the man's chest, and muttered a couple words. The Chief Medical Officer flew backward into his chair. Three rolls of medical tape leapt out of their cabinet and wrapped themselves around his wrists and ankles, pinning him to the chair, while a roll of gauze shoved itself into his mouth. Without another word, Wanda strode down the hall and pushed open the third door on her right._

_The room's sole occupant, who was lying on his chest, did not move or even acknowledge her presence. She reached up to the shelf on her left as she entered the room, pulled off a syringe of saline solution, and shifted it into her right hand. She muttered a string of words in a foreign tongue. The syringe started to glow bright red. Without hesitation, she plunged it into the man's left arm and pushed down the plunger, forcing the magically-infused solution into the vein._

_Wanda stepped back, crossed her arms, and gave a satisfied look as she watched her magic take effect._

_At first, there was no discernible difference; the man continued to lie motionless on the bed. However, a red line was suddenly visible creeping down the length of his arm from the injection site, following the vein. The red line glowed, making it visible as it traveled along his arm beneath the sheet covering most of his body. The glow reached his heart, where it made the organ shine brightly, visible even through his body. In a matter of seconds, the glow spread through his body, traveling along the arteries. When it reached his back and legs, those areas started to glow a sickly black color beneath the gauze. The black and red seemed to struggle back and forth for several minutes, before the black slowly receded and finally flickered out. The legs and back continued to glow red, and the light pulsed for a minute afterward as the blood vessels, muscles, and skin that had been damaged in the fire regenerated under magical compulsion._

_Ten minutes after Wanda had injected him with her magically-infused syringe, Scott Lang finally groaned and wearily forced his eyes open, turning his head to the side as he did so. Suddenly his memory of the explosion returned and his face contorted with fear and pain, his eyes shot wide open, he pulled his hands up to his face defensively, and he cried out._

"_Lang, it's okay," Wanda whispered soothingly. "The explosion's over, and you're in the helicarrier's medical ward."_

"_Maximoff?" Scott asked confusedly. "What happened?"_

"_No time to explain. Your team is in danger, and you need to go help them," Wanda said hurriedly. "Now get up. Dr. Foster's been working on making a new suit for you since your old one got burnt up and had to be cut off."_

"_Bill? I hope he's not making another '60s alien-looking spandex leotard thing for me…" Scott mumbled as he rolled over onto his back and sat up in bed._

_Wanda turned away to give him a measure of privacy while he pulled off the gauze dressings which he no longer needed and changed into a pair of gray sweatpants and a Beatles T-shirt. "No," she said, "Bill convinced Dr. Pym that this was a sign that it is time to retire his old suit and let you use something a little more modern and a little less… '60s."_

"_How is it that I've been telling the Professor that for years, and it only takes Bill a couple days to convince him?" Scott asked as they walked out past the startled Chief Medical Officer._

"_I think he was rattled by how close you came to dying," Wanda observed, untying the doctor with a flick of her wrist._

"_Huh," Scott said, surprised. "I didn't know he cared."_

* * *

Scott plummeted through the air toward the collapsed factory, followed by virtually every insect within three states of his path to Newark. Below him, he noticed Bruce Banner stumbling out of the quinjet, disoriented, toward the factory. Behind Bruce, he caught a glimpse of Carol Danvers groaning and struggling to peel herself off the quinjet's roof.

When he was ten feet from the ground, Scott shrank down to a few inches tall and threw out his arms, revealing triangles of black fabric running down his arms and sides. Another length of fabric appeared when he spread his legs to shoulder-width and bent his knees. The fabric caught the air and slowed his descent, allowing him to glide down and land on the back of a cockroach along the east wall of the collapsed factory's basement. Above him, all the flying insects followed him down and swirled around in a whirlwind of wings and angry buzzing.

Ant-Man commanded his massive army to attack through the pile of rubble blocking the hole in the wall separating the factory basement from the warehouse basement. He returned to his normal human size and ran across the basement, dimly away of shapes moving beneath the factory debris. As he neared the west wall, he jumped into the air, activated the Pym Particle generator on his suit, and caught the leg of the hornet that was leading the charge. He swung himself up onto its back, and rode it through a tiny hole in the debris pile.

* * *

Thor awoke to the strange sensation of slimy creatures slithering over him. He was lying on his stomach, and when he opened his eyes he could see earthworms nibbling away at the edges of the bricks around him. He found it strange, since on his previous encounters with the tiny Midgardian insects, they had only eaten dirt. He pushed that thought to the side and pulled his arms under his chest to push himself up.

Thor pushed himself up onto his hands and knees. The debris fell of his back to the side, leaving his royal red cape torn and dirty. He slowly gathered himself and pushed himself to his feet. Looking down, he saw Mjölnir lying in the debris near where his right hand had been. Beside it, however, he saw what looked like an entire colony of marching ants. Looking around, he saw more insects, all marching west.

By now Thor's hearing had returned, and he heard what sounded like energy weapons coming from the other side of the rubble separating the two basements. Over that, however, he heard the buzzing of millions of insects. And over that he heard Scott Lang's battle cry of "For Queen and Colony!"

He reached down, grabbed Mjölnir, and charged for the hole in the wall, just as the Hulk jumped down beside him and roared. Ms. Marvel appeared in the air above them, shook her head to clear it of cobwebs, and fired a blue energy beam at the pile of rubble blocking access to the warehouse. The rubble burst into tiny pieces and fell away, creating a hole large enough for a single person to squeeze through. Thor threw Mjölnir through the opening an instant before the Hulk barreled through.

* * *

When Thor finally made it through the hole, he had to stop for a moment and stare at the scene unfolding in front of him.

Thor stared in shock at the dozen drones lying in pieces strewn across the floor. Then he realized how Ant-Man had defeated so many in such a short period of time.

He watched as a dozen butterflies flew between a pair of drones and fluttered their wings wildly. The two drones turned and fired their energy beams at what they took to be an enemy combatant. Most of the butterflies dove out of the energy beam, though one's wing got caught in the beam and burst into flames. But both drones were destroyed by each other's energy cannons.

An entire colony of ants crawled up the leg of another drone, forcing themselves into the tiny chinks in its armor. The ants bit down on any wires they could find, and the drone suddenly fell to its side as it lost control of its leg. The ants proceeded up into the chest cavity, and severed the cables attaching the drone's power supply to the rest of its systems.

Suddenly, Scott Lang appeared on the other side of the room crouching on a drone's shoulders. Rather than the uniform with which Thor was familiar, though, he was wearing a black S.H.I.E.L.D. combat uniform with long sleeves. Instead of a helmet covering his entire face, he had on a silver crash helmet with the black visor down. He pulled his gloved right hand out of the small space where the head connected to the rest of the body, and the drone's eyes went black as it hunched forward and began to fall over. Scott threw away a handful of wires, pushed off into the air, and disappeared again as he reactivated the Pym Particle generator and landed on a hornet's back.

Scott jumped off the hornet's back a moment later and glided to the floor. He landed in a crouch next to a drone's massive metal foot. The drone lifted its foot to take a step forward, and Scott seized the opportunity. He stood up, jogged over to where the drone's foot was, put both hands on it, and pushed upward with all his might, activating the Pym Particle generator as he did so. As he grew, he pushed the drone off balance, and it fell to its left into a pair of drones standing next to it.

Thor shook his head in surprise and confusion. He glanced to his right, where Hulk had a similar bewildered expression on his massive green face. Behind them, Ms. Marvel cleared her throat and asked, "Well, are we going to help him?"

Thor shrugged his shoulders, tightened his grip on Mjölnir, and charged forward with a roar, followed by Hulk and Ms. Marvel.

* * *

AN: You didn't honestly think I would kill of Ant-Man did you? Review and let me know if you like the way I brought him back.


	25. Chapter 24

AN: Thanks to Sargerogue for reviewing last chapter. Don't worry, your question will be answered soon, if it wasn't already! (How's that for ambiguous?)

* * *

Thor swung Mjölnir at an upward angle into the chest of the drone standing in front of him, throwing it up into the air. Behind him, Ms. Marvel shot a blast of blue energy from her right hand, which connected with the ARC reactor set in the drone's chest and threw the drone backwards. Next to him, Hulk picked up a drone in each hand and smashed them together. He threw first one and then the other into the crowd of drones approaching them.

As the drones fired their energy weapons at them, Ms. Marvel advanced to interpose herself between the drones and her teammates and absorb the energy before it reached them. As she absorbed more and more energy, her body began to glow and radiate heat. Her eyes turned an electric blue and her hair stood on end due to the energy coursing through her. When the drones cut off their energy beams, the other two Avengers could barely stand to look at her for the light emitting from her body. She took a step back toward Thor and placed her left palm on Mjölnir, transferring some of the energy over to the hammer.

Thor felt Mjölnir vibrating in his hand. He nodded to Ms. Marvel, who lifted her hands. Thor willed the energy contained in his hammer to shoot out in a web, starting from the hammer's head and running through all the nearby drones. The electrical current jumped from drone to drone until it had spent all of its energy. As one, forty drones collapsed limply to the floor.

While he was doing that, Ms. Marvel shot the energy she had retained out of her hands. She spread her fingers and allowed each one to channel a beam of energy. Ms. Marvel swung her hands around, using the energy beams as a scythe to cut through the drones standing nearby. Hulk charged in, heedless of the energy beams streaking around him. As they hit his body, they dispersed in all directions. He grabbed the severed torso of a drone standing to his right before it could fall to the ground, crushed it into a ball between his fists, and threw it like a baseball at a column of drones standing in front of him.

A pair of yellow energy pulses shot out of a point a foot above the drones. The spot wavered and shook a bit as though it could not hold steady, and the two energy pulses flickered out. They returned a moment later, stronger this time, and a pair of drones exploded an instant after the energy pulses struck them.

Scott Lang reappeared at that spot as he deactivated his Pym Particle generator. He dropped down onto a drone, reached into its neck cavity, and pulled out a pair of wires with his right hand. Simultaneously, he held out his left hand and shot a pulse of yellow energy at another drone. The drone shattered.

* * *

"_So, Bill, what have you got for me?" Scott asked, walking into the biochemist's lab less than fifteen minutes after waking up from his medically-induced coma._

"_Scott!" Bill grinned, pulling the other man into a bear hug. "I was worried Wanda would not be able to revive you; she said there was a 34% chance of it going horribly wrong and turning you into a giant mutant cockroach!"_

"Metamorphosis_, right?" Scott replied without thinking. He stopped and stared at Bill and Wanda slack-jawed as his mind processed what he had just heard. "Wait… _what_?"_

"_You weren't going to turn into a cockroach," Wanda said, brushing the comment off with a dismissive wave. "Though you could have been sucked into an alternate reality where cockroaches are the only survivors of a nuclear holocaust."_

"_That would have been fun; I could've been 'Cockroach-Man'," Scott commented. "So, back to this new suit I was promised. How did you convince the Professor to let me use something new?"_

"_I simply told him what had happened," Bill responded. "He said he was upset that his gift which you had stolen had nearly gotten you killed and left your daughter without a father. I convinced him I could make something a little more protective for you if I wasn't being constrained by 50-year-old fashions."_

_Bill led Scott over to his worktable, on which he had laid out all the pieces of the new Ant-Man suit. "I made your suit out of fire-resistant material this time, so hopefully you won't get incinerated again—"_

"_Thanks for reminding me," Scott muttered under his breath._

"—_and I added a couple of triangular wings that extend out along the arms and torso, as well as one that extends between your legs so you can glide around instead of just falling, since I know how much you like jumping off of ridiculous heights," Bill continued, ignoring the interruption. "The ones on your arms are housed here in the torso, and slide out along this seam in your arms when you activate them. Same thing with the wing between your legs: It folds up to fit in a compartment at the crotch, and fans out down your inseams. Your Pym Particle generator is still attached to the belt, but it should be easier to control, since I built the control mechanism into your gloves. Simply move the fingers on your right hand in the correct combination to grow or shrink."_

"_Thanks. It was always really difficult to control my size on the other suit, especially when I was in the middle of a fight," Scott observed, picking up the right glove off the table. "It feels heavy," he commented, surprised._

"_Part of that is the control mechanism, but part is also from your new Bio-Stingers," Bill explained. "Remember the energy pulses the Professor created for his Yellowjacket persona? I convinced him to let me have the schematics to incorporate them into your new suit. Press your thumb to your index finger and hold your wrist like this," he demonstrated, "and the Bio-Stinger will tap into your own bio-energy and fire an energy pulse out of the focusing pad in the palm."_

"_Sweet," Scott said appreciatively, pulling the glove onto his right hand. He reached out and ran his other hand over the helmet sitting on the table, which looked like a motorcycle crash helmet. He asked, "Is this what I think it is?"_

"_That's your new helmet," Bill nodded. "It even has a heads-up display similar to War Machine's or Iron Man's, though I did not design it to use the same operating system. It will show you your location and size, as well as the locations of your teammates and any nearby insects. With this helmet you don't need to wear a communicator, since it is built in, unlike the old one. You don't need antennae with this one since the entire helmet generates and focuses the signals you need to communicate with insects."_

"_Plus, it looks a lot cooler than the old one," Scott observed, pulling the helmet on over his head. "I always felt like something out of one of the _Alien_ movies in that thing. Did I tell you that I actually scared a kid after the Chitauri invasion? I was trying to rescue him and he freaked out when he saw the helmet! How many superheroes can say, 'My superpower is the ability to frighten small children'?"_

* * *

Ant-Man jumped off the drone's back, contorting himself and shrinking as he did so to avoid an energy beam. As he spun around, he fired his Bio-Stinger at the offending drone, melting its energy cannons and pushing it backward to the ground. Scott landed on the Hulk's outstretched arm and ran up it onto the beast's shoulder. He fired a Bio-Stinger at a drone standing behind Hulk just as it was about to fire, and jumped off as the Hulk swung around to grab that drone in his right hand.

Scott threw out his arms and spread his legs to deploy his wings, and glided toward the ground, picking up speed as he did so. He leaned back slightly to pick up altitude and flew straight up a drone's torso. As he lost momentum, he reached for a handhold on the drone's chest, and slid in through a crack in its chest plate. Scott crawled through the systems to the command center located inside the chest cavity, where he pulled a tiny flash drive out of his utility belt, expanded it to normal size, and maneuvered it into a USB slot. As soon as all the drone's data had downloaded, he pulled the flash drive out, shrunk it back, and returned it to its pouch on his belt. Scott reached into the pouch next to the flash drive and pulled out a tiny C4 charge, which he stuck to the processor.

Once the charge was set, Scott climbed back out of the drone the way he'd come. When he reached the outside, he summoned a cockroach to himself, jumped from the drone, and pressed the detonator in his hand. The drone exploded behind him as he fell and landed on the cockroach's back. Around him, a horde of cockroaches milled about, awaiting his command. With a glance to either side, Ant-Man ordered them to charge.

* * *

Thor was shocked to see a patch of the ground turn black-and-brown as cockroaches gathered near Ant-Man. As the cockroaches formed into columns and raced across the ground toward the final group of drones, Thor threw Mjölnir above them. Simultaneously, Ant-Man leapt from the back of his cockroach steed, returned partway to normal size, fired a Bio-Stinger at one of the drones, and returned to ant size as he caught hold of the flying hammer.

Scott jumped off Mjölnir the instant before it flew through a drone's chest. Scott fired a Bio-Stinger to his left as he landed on the drone in front of him. His heads-up display indicated a pair of wires near the surface close to his location. He reached in through a tiny opening in the armor, grabbed the wires, and pulled. As soon as his hand was out, he returned to normal size and jumped off the drone. To his right, the army of cockroaches he had summoned swarmed up the legs of another drone, gnawing on any wires they could reach. Behind him, Scott heard an explosion as Ms. Marvel absorbed an energy blast and reflected it back at the final drone.

Ant-Man, Thor, Ms. Marvel, and Hulk surveyed the destruction surrounding them. The walls were pockmarked with scorch marks and tiny holes from flying debris. Wrecked drone parts littered the floor around their feet. Crushed insects were scattered around where they had gotten in the way of the Avengers' or the drones' feet. Near the far wall of the basement, the four Avengers caught sight of a wooden chair. It had fallen over to one side, and the occupant's head was resting on the floor. The man made no effort to look at them.

Scott and Carol nodded to Thor and Hulk before turning to walk back into the factory basement. As they reached the hole separating the two basements, Clint Barton's head poked through. A bruise was starting to form on his cheek, and a trickle of blood was flowing out of a fresh cut in his forehead, but he was otherwise unharmed. "We've found most of the others, though Mockingbird and one of the Asgardians are both still missing," he said.

Scott pushed his feelings to the side and calmly summoned all the ants in the area to search for the final two missing heroes. He and Carol stepped through the opening into the factory basement and found Captain America and Iron Fist leaning against the wall next to a man wearing a metal breastplate with his black hair tied back in a bun.

"Hogun agreed to patch everyone up," Clint explained as they walked over to that group. Captain America seemed slightly dazed, though he was trying his best to take command of the situation. Iron Fist looked like he had taken the most damage from the storm of rubble: His shirt was torn in several places, and the edges were caked with dried blood. He had bruises running the length of his arms, and a shining welt on his left cheek. However, the bruises had already turned the sickly yellow color of old bruises as they healed rapidly, and none of the others were quite as badly injured as he was.

On the way, they passed a blonde Asgardian woman who was working to dig a very angry-looking Power Man out of a pile of brick and factory machinery. Nearby, an older Asgardian man with a long brown beard was doing the same for a slightly-dazed black-haired Asgardian woman.

Off to the side, Vision and War Machine were walking around using their scanners to search for their two missing teammates.

* * *

Thor and Hulk bounded across the basement to the chair and reached it at the same moment. The unconscious man tied to it was barely recognizable for his haggard appearance. His normally well-groomed black hair was unkempt, his ordinarily clean cut goatee was untrimmed and mangy, and he had not shaved in days. His jeans were covered in filth and his Metallica shirt was barely recognizable under a layer of bloodstains, food stains, and dirt. The brash confidence normally present in his expression was gone, replaced by a black eye and split lip. Yet even with all that, they recognized their lost teammate in an instant:

"Man of Iron!" Thor exclaimed, as Hulk bellowed, "Metal Man!"

It was Tony.


	26. Chapter 25

AN: Thanks to Sargerogue, Qweb, and TheNaggingCube for reviewing the last chapter, as well as those who have favorited and followed it. I'm glad people liked the fight scene with Ant-Man.

* * *

"_My lady, we've found him_," Pepper heard Thor say over the radio frequency.

"Tony? Is he okay? Is he hurt? Is he alive?" she asked, trembling, feeling for the chair behind her. Natasha rose from her own chair and carefully guided the other woman down into her chair. Pepper didn't move until the Asgardian's voice came back over the radio.

"_He is injured, but his injuries do not appear to be severe. He will need time to recover, but I believe that he will indeed recover_," Thor reported.

Pepper let out a breath, leaned forward to bury her face in her palms, and sobbed with joy and relief. Natasha placed her hand awkwardly on her friend's back and patted it. Pepper reached her right hand back, clasped it around Natasha's hand, and the two simply sat in that position.

* * *

Vision and Rhodey continued to scan the ground where one of the Warriors Three (Vision identified him as Fandral) had disappeared. Rhodey took a step forward and switched scanning settings to scan further below the ground. The scan picked up the faint outline of a human hand clutching a saber.

"We found Fandral!" Rhodey shouted. "Marvel, I could use your help digging him out."

Carol and the freshly-unburied Luke jogged over to where Rhodey was standing, followed by the blonde-haired Asgardian woman, who identified herself to them as Valkyrie. The four heroes started pulling away the debris that was covering Fandral's unmoving form. About a foot below the surface, they uncovered a slab from one of the factory's interior rooms which had fallen intact.

Rhodey gestured for his three companions to each grab a side of the slab to pull it off, and the four carefully lifted the massive concrete slab. Rhodey grunted, "Move it in my direction."

They slowly walked in Rhodey's direction, Valkyrie being careful not to step on Fandral as she did so, and placed it on the floor away from Fandral's unconscious form. As soon as the concrete slab was on the ground, the four went to examine their injured comrade.

Hogun ran over as soon as Fandral was uncovered to check his vitals. With some help from Valkyrie, Hogun pulled the dented breastplate off his friend's chest and bent over to listen to his heart and lungs. His expression darkened as he sat up and moved to check his pulse and examine the rest of his body for signs of bleeding. The tension in his jaw belied the emotionless gaze he directed at War Machine.

"He is bleeding internally, and his pulse is weak. I can stabilize him here, but we need to bring him to the Healing Room on Asgard quickly to save his life," Hogun stated intensely as he rummaged in his medical kit. He pulled a vial of green liquid out of the pouch, broke the wax seal with one of the spikes on his mace, and poured the contents into Fandral's open mouth. As soon as it was in, he held the mouth shut and stroked his throat to force him to swallow.

"Why can't you heal him the same way you healed Romanoff?" Rhodey asked, walking over.

"Unfortunately, the elixir I gave her only works on humans because it causes the body to mimic Asgardian physiology. When the person already has Asgardian physiology, there is nothing to mimic, making the elixir useless. Some of our healers know how to achieve the same results on Asgardians using magic and medicine, but I do not possess any of that skill. The only other method we have developed for increasing the Asgardian healing rate is a specific combination of chemical and atmospheric conditions which we can only create in our Healing Room. The serum I gave him will slow the bleeding and help regenerate some of the blood he lost, but it cannot repair the damage to his heart and lungs," Hogun explained.

"Is he stable enough for transport?" Rhodey asked.

"He will survive the journey," Hogun nodded, "though he cannot move on his own. Volstagg and I will have to take him now."

"I am ready to go," Volstagg said, bounding over, "but we need to get out of this pit first."

"Marvel?" Rhodey asked, slipping his arms under the fallen warrior's shoulders. Ms. Marvel walked over and picked up Fandral's feet. Rhodey nodded, and the two Avengers rose into the air together. They carefully landed outside the factory site, and looked over to see that the other two Asgardians had already climbed out and were approaching them. Volstagg took Rhodey's place holding Fandral's shoulders, while Hogun grabbed his legs.

"Heimdall, open the Bifröst!" Volstagg called out. "And be careful!"

A tiny funnel cloud shot down from the sky above them and rapidly expanded to engulf the Warriors Three. An instant later, the funnel had disappeared, and Carol and Rhodey were left standing alone next to a strange-looking design etched into the ground.

* * *

A new icon appeared on Scott's heads-up display as a group of ants discovered a human form buried beneath the rubble. He jogged over to the location and rapidly moved his fingers in a specific pattern to shrink himself down. Scott slid into the pile feet first and consulted his heads-up display to find his location relative to the human form. He found that he was about a foot above the person's head.

Scott dug and slid his way through the pile of rubble. By contorting his body and shrinking a bit further, he reached his goal. He was confronted by long blond hair fanning out around a light-complexioned face. The eyes were closed, and an arm was pressed against the face by the debris above it. Scott could recognize those facial features anywhere; one of the last times he'd seen them had been from this angle, just before the explosion.

"I found Bobbi," Scott reported through his communicator.

"What's her condition?" Steve asked immediately.

"She's unconscious," Scott replied, "but she appears to be alive. Hang on." Scott climbed over the debris as he made his way down Bobbi's slack face to her chin. He slid down to her neck, which was ordinarily smooth and pale but Scott could see the beginnings of a bruise where a piece of stone had struck her, and followed it carefully down to her collarbone, where he turned right. He sighed in relief when he felt her chest moving slightly under his feet as she breathed. He made his way along her arm until he reached her wrist. He pulled a pair of electrodes out of his belt, peeled off the backings, and stuck one to her wrist and the other to her S.H.I.E.L.D. catsuit.

Scott wrapped his left arm around Bobbi's finger and pressed a button on his belt with his right hand. Immediately, Bobbi started shrinking, along with her clothing. As she shrunk, Scott adjusted his grip to hold her hand in his. A moment later, they were both the same size, and Bobbi was lying where her index finger had been previously. There was a rumble as the rubble shifted to fill in the space that she had vacated, though the rubble above their location stayed in place. Scott peeled the electrodes off and stowed them back away in their pouch on his belt.

Scott pressed two fingers to Bobbi's neck and felt for a pulse. It was weak but steady, and he could feel her exhalation on his hand. "Yeah, she's unconscious but alive," he informed Captain America. "I shrank her down so I can get her out of here more easily." He took a closer look at her face, but turned away when he saw how the features were marred by bruising, and that an older cut on her forehead had been reopened and was sluggishly oozing blood. He slid his hands down her torso to feel for cracked ribs. He found three broken ribs, and noticed that her left arm was at an unnatural angle.

He knew he had to immobilize the broken bones as best he could before moving her, so he reached into his utility belt and pulled out several rolls of gauze and medical tape. Looking around, he spotted a few bent nails in the debris around them. He laid a pair of nails on either side of Bobbi's left arm, and wrapped the tape around them, tightly enough to restrict movement, but not so tight that it would impede blood flow. Satisfied, he wrapped the gauze carefully around her chest, padding it with a few pieces of insulation. When he was finished, he retrieved a length of rope from his belt and tied one end around Bobbi's waist and the other around his own waist.

Scott checked his heads-up display, and discovered that a dozen ants were still under his control and waiting for orders about two feet away from their location in the rubble. He commanded a pair of ants to come to where he and Bobbi were, while the other ten began shifting the debris out of their way to clear a path. When the two ants arrived, Scott maneuvered Bobbi onto the back of one ant, and loosely tied her on with a piece of string. Once that was done, he climbed on behind her and commanded the two ants to climb out of the rubble. One led the way, while the ant with the two Avengers on its back followed.

Scott squeezed the ant's midsection with his knees as tightly as he could to keep his seat, while he held Bobbi on its back with his arms around her waist. The two ants slowly wound their way through the wilderness of destroyed brickwork towards the open ground. Once Bobbi nearly fell off, but Scott, who had been taken by surprise when their ant made a sharp turn, caught her hand before he lost her completely.

They reached the surface less than ten minutes after Scott had found her. He untied her from the ant and slid her off its back, though he left the cord connecting them. He laid her out on a smooth stone and extracted the electrodes from his utility belt. When he had attached them to her wrist and her suit again, he moved his fingers in the appropriate pattern, and the two Avengers expanded back to their original size. When they did so, the makeshift splint on Bobbi's arm and padding on her ribs fell off as she grew too large for them.

Scott looked around for a suitable replacement for the splint, and found a pair of boards, which he arranged to provide support for the arm. By this time the others had come over to them, and Steve handed him a length of regular-sized gauze, which Scott wrapped snugly around the splint. Scott did the same to replace the padding protecting Bobbi's broken ribs before finally pulling the electrodes off and stowing them in his belt.

"Thor and Hulk found Iron Man, and they've got him in the quinjet already," Steve told Scott. "Fortunately, Marvel didn't damage it _too_ badly when she fell on it."

"Sorry, Cap. Next time I go flying through the air, I'll tell the explosion _not_ to launch me at the multi-million-dollar airplane!" the woman said sarcastically.

"Let's see about getting Mockingbird up to ground level so we can get out of here," Cap said, ignoring the interruption. "Marvel?"

"No," Scott said suddenly. "I'll do it." Without waiting for a response, Scott pushed himself up to his knees, slipped one arm under Bobbi's shoulders and the other under her knees, and stood up. He moved his fingers in a special pattern, and immediately grew to four times his normal size. He carefully stepped out of the hole onto the ground level, Bobbi still in his arms, and took another step to bring himself next to the quinjet. Another finger combination returned him to his normal size. He walked up the loading ramp into the quinjet, and set Bobbi down along the bench on the right side.

Bruce Banner looked up wearily from the where he had been sitting on the far end of that bench. Clint was already sitting in the pilot's seat running through the takeoff procedure. He grinned and said, "Welcome back to the land of the living, Lang."

"Glad to be back, Barton," Scott replied as Steve, Danny, Luke, and the two Asgardian women walked up the loading ramp. Steve walked down to the copilot's chair and sat down, while the other four took places along the middle of the cabin since the two benches were taken up by Tony and Bobbi.

Clint hit the button to raise the loading ramp and took off from the ground, directing his course east toward the Tower. Outside, Thor, Carol, Vision, and Rhodey took off at the same time to fly themselves back to the Tower.


	27. Chapter 26

AN: Thanks to Sargerogue for reviewing the last chapter.

* * *

"Pepper, stop fidgeting," Natasha scolded as the two stood side-by-side on the Avengers Tower landing pad. Pepper had insisted on extending the pad the moment Clint reported that they were en route. Pepper had also insisted that she wanted to be there waiting for them when they returned. As a result, the three women had been standing on the edge of the landing pad and shivering for the last ten minutes, holding their jackets tightly around their bodies as the wind whipped around them.

"Thank you for flying me out here," Dr. Jane Foster said, turning to her hostess. "I really appreciate the opportunity to see your Tower."

"I'm sure that's not _all_ you appreciate seeing," Natasha smirked, glancing over at the brunette, who was standing a little apart from the other two. Jane blushed and took a step away from the redhead.

"Compared to everything else that's happened recently, I can honestly say that it was no trouble at all," Pepper smiled graciously, ignoring Natasha's comment. "I'm only sorry we couldn't bring you to the tower sooner."

"Given the options, I prefer arriving late to arriving dead!" Jane laughed.

"There they are," Natasha suddenly called out, pointing southwest. The three women could just make out the shape of a quinjet flying toward them from that direction. Behind the quinjet, they could see a trio of darker figures, as well, one of whom was wearing a red cape.

"I see Thor!" Jane shouted excitedly, bouncing on the balls of her feet in anticipation. Natasha glanced over and snorted with laughter, but Pepper was too wrapped up in her own excitement to pay any attention to the other two.

The quinjet neared the landing pad and settled into a hover seven feet above the ground. The draft from the jet's foils kicked up the wind around them just as a gust blew past them. Natasha, who was used to being near a landing quinjet, didn't have trouble regaining her balance. Pepper had seen the Avengers off often enough that she anticipated the wind, took a couple steps, and caught herself. Jane, however, who had been standing next to the edge and had never experienced a quinjet's landing procedure before, wasn't so lucky. She stumbled over the raised guard wall around the edge of the landing pad, and fell off with a scream, losing hold of her jacket as she did so.

Before either of the other two women could react, a red-and-iron streak dropped from the sky above the quinjet and rocketed past where they were standing near the edge of the landing pad.

Thor held Mjölnir in front of him in his right hand and willed himself to move faster to catch up to the woman falling in front of him. When they were less than 100 feet from the ground, Thor was less than a foot above her. She was falling backwards, and he could see the terror in her eyes as she held her arms up toward him. He reached out with his left arm, hooked it under her armpits, and pulled her in close to his chest when they were less than 20 feet from the ground. When he was sure his grip on her was secure, Thor thrust Mjölnir upward behind him, and they stopped falling just as their toes touched the ground.

Thor and Jane shot back up toward the landing pad over 1200 feet above them. Jane wrapped her arms tightly around Thor's neck and sobbed into his chest with relief. Thor slipped his other arm under her knees without slowing their ascent. A moment later, they were level with the landing pad. Thor dropped down onto the pad and gently lowered Jane's to feet on the ground.

The quinjet had already set down, and the foils had stopped spinning. Near the door, Thor saw that Scott was carrying the still-unconscious Bobbi into the Tower, followed by Bruce, Rhodey, Steve, and Pepper, all clustered around the unconscious Tony. Behind them, Vision led Carol, Danny, Luke, and Thor's two remaining Asgardian companions toward the door. On his way in, Vision hit the large button next to the door. The landing pad shuddered as it began retracting back into the Tower. Just as the door was shutting behind Vision and his group, the final two Avengers walked off the quinjet.

"Sorry I knocked you off the landing pad," Clint said with an apologetic glance at Jane, his hand just brushing Natasha's as he said it. "I assure you this is the first time that's happened at the Tower."

"I should've been more careful," Jane answered, wrapping her arms around Thor. "I'm just glad Thor caught me!"

"You are shivering, my lady," Thor observed, pulling Jane closer and covering her with his cape. "Let us enter the Tower and warm up."

* * *

"How is he, Bruce?" Pepper asked. She was standing next to one of the examination beds in the Tower's small (albeit state-of-the-art) medical lab. Tony lay in the bed, still unmoving.

"He is severely dehydrated and malnourished. I don't think he's had any liquid since his capture, and not much in the way of food, either. His immune system has been weakened significantly by being kept in that cold, dark basement for days," Bruce explained from his position on the other side of the bed. He hated serving as the team medic. He knew it was an important role to fill, but he hated the helplessness of watching his teammates suffer and having little power to alleviate or avenge their suffering. At the moment, the Hulk really wanted to make Justin Hammer pay for subjecting "Metal Man" to this, and it was taking all Bruce's self-control to fight against that impulse.

"Fortunately," Bruce continued after regaining control of himself, "all three of those are easily treatable with plenty of rest and an IV to replace the fluids and nutrients he's lost. If you look at the side of his head, I suspect that bump is recent, but the location does not concern me much. All his other injuries are not nearly as severe as those; the bruises you see are most likely the worst of it. I'm still waiting on the X-Rays, but I don't suspect any broken bones. I expect him to be awake in a few hours, 24 at the latest."

"That may be the best news I've had yet," Pepper smiled, tears flowing freely down her cheeks. She wiped them off with the back of her hand. She collapsed onto the edge of the bed, careful to avoid sitting on Tony's legs. She reached out and grabbed Tony's right hand, which was sitting above the covers, with her right hand and stroked the back of the hand with her thumb. Bruce excused himself and walked over to the curtain dividing the room in half. He pulled the curtain back slightly, walked into the other half of the lab, and closed the curtain again.

* * *

"I'm sorry, but two concussions in as many days is two too many," Bruce said, shaking his head. He held a CAT scan up to the light. "The first concussion wasn't too bad, but piling the second one on top of it compounded the effects."

"So will she recover?" Scott asked. Carol and Rhodey stood behind him with equally-concerned looks on their faces.

"Of course she will," Bruce nodded. "This Tower has the best medical facilities on the planet. Unfortunately, I can't guarantee that there won't be brain damage. We won't know about that until she wakes up, and I do not want to rush that, since that could make things even worse.

"As far as her other injuries go," Bruce continued, picking up her medical file from the table next to the bed, "you did a good job of splinting her arm and cushioning her ribs on the scene. The arm is a simple fracture, though the shards did some damage to the surrounding tissue, possibly when the arm got jostled while you were rescuing her from the debris. Her broken ribs did not move at all, so her lungs and heart escaped serious damage. Her liver did take some abuse from the falling bricks, and I needed to do surgery to repair that, but beyond that she did not suffer any major internal injuries.

"Unfortunately, you missed two of her injuries when you were bandaging her up under the rubble. Both her legs are broken. I can only suspect that an entire wall fell on top of her lower body. It's a miracle it didn't land higher up and crush her pelvis; as it is, both legs are broken sheer across in a straight line. I'm not surprised you didn't notice it at first, since they probably didn't look broken in the same way as her arm. While you were bringing her to the surface, however, the broken bones shifted out of alignment and cut into the surrounding muscle. You can see that I've put both legs in casts to immobilize them, and the damage is extensive enough that she will need months of healing and therapy before she's able to return to active duty."

"But she will be okay, right?" Carol asked.

"Depending on how she recovers from the back-to-back concussions, yes, she will," Bruce affirmed comfortingly.

* * *

Steve, Clint, and Natasha looked at the computer screen in front of them displaying the intelligence that Scott had gathered from one of the drones. A schematic of the Mark-II Hammer Drone itself was prominent on the screen, showing the designs for the energy cannons and missile systems.

"Impressive," Clint observed. "He took Tony's flight stabilizers and turned them into more powerful and directional guns."

Steve shook his head and clicked a button to move to the next page of information. "That's not the important thing for now," he said. "Right now we need to figure out how Hammer set this up and where these things were built."

"I think we've found it right here," Natasha said, pointing out a line in the drone's programming code. "This drone came from a weapons maker in Philadelphia that S.H.I.E.L.D. has been monitoring for the last decade."

"Why for the last decade?" Steve asked.

"We've suspected him of involvement with terrorist organizations ever since 9/11," Clint explained. "Suspicious weapons have been turning up around the country with the same symbol on them. Unfortunately, we've never been able to tie them to the manufacturer definitively enough to authorize a hit to take him out. This may be what we need."

"So, what do we do about the weapons maker and his bankroller?" Steve asked.

"Well, a single arrow will solve the weapons maker problem," Clint grinned. "Tying him back to Hammer shouldn't be much trouble with the backdoor access we have to Hammer's bank accounts."

"We have enough with this code here to say that this guy produced the drones?" Steve asked, glancing between the two S.H.I.E.L.D. agents.

"Absolutely," Natasha nodded. "I was undercover as his assistant for a couple months a few years back, and got a look at some of his coding. It's a match. He's the only one who uses that particular code to make a robot walk. And, if you look further down, you can see his signature code in the third line from the bottom."

"As Avengers Team Leader, I think I have authority to authorize a hit, right?" Steve asked Clint.

"In times of combat, yes," Clint nodded. "Ordinarily, Director Fury or Agent Coulson needs to sign off on it."

"Yes, I do, and yes, I am," Director Fury's voice said from the television screen across the room.

"I'm not even going to ask how long you've been listening," Steve observed. He looked over at the archer and said, "Clint?"

"I'll be back in time for breakfast," the archer smirked, turning to walk out of the room. Natasha followed him out the door silently.


	28. Chapter 27

AN: Thanks to Qweb for reviewing the last chapter.

* * *

The quinjet touched down in the middle of a clearing in a forest outside Philadelphia a little after 9 PM. The running lights flickered out as soon as the jet stopped moving, and the pilot cut the engines less than a minute later. On a command, the rear loading ramp opened downward, and a rectangle of light appeared on the ground as the cabin light spilled out through the opening.

The silence of the forest was suddenly disturbed by the sound of a motorcycle engine roaring to life, muffled though it was by the quinjet's bulk on either side of it. While the loading ramp was still a couple feet from the ground, the motorcycle idling in the quinjet's main cabin sprang into motion and burst through the opening. The driver popped a wheelie just before the front wheel flew out into space, and the motorcycle jumped the remaining foot-and-a-half to the ground. The rear wheel landed first, followed shortly by the front wheel.

The passenger, whose fiery red hair wasn't completely covered by her crash helmet, extracted one arm from around the driver's waist as soon as the motorcycle's wheels were on the ground. She pulled out a device shaped like a cell phone and pressed two buttons. The quinjet's loading ramp reversed directions about a foot from the ground and began to close once more. At the same time, the quinjet's invisibility shielding activated, and the only part of the jet still visible was the rapidly-diminishing rectangular view into the main cabin.

The passenger returned the control device to a pouch on her utility belt and let her arm settle around the driver's waist once more. She wore a small go-bag on her left shoulder looped around her neck, black to match the color of her leather catsuit. The driver also had a strap around his neck, though it was attached to a cylindrical object, also black. Instead of a leather suit, the driver wore a black leather jacket covering a deep purple vest, black combat pants, and boots. A crash helmet identical to that worn by his passenger was snugly fastened around his head.

The driver swerved expertly to avoid a fallen tree as he cut through the forest from their landing site to the service road that would lead them into the city.

"You know, I wasn't overly thrilled with the idea of bringing the motorcycle at first," Natasha commented into the two-way radio in her helmet, tightening her grip when Clint made a sharp right turn, "and now I think I'm even _less_ fond of the idea!"

"You love riding along when I drive my bike," Clint argued as their path brought them alongside the service road.

"I suppose that's true," she acceded, "especially since I get to touch you more on the bike than any other time we're in public!"

Clint nearly lost control of the bike when she said that. She squeezed her arms tighter around him just as he regained control of the bike. He continued on as though nothing had happened.

"You did that on purpose, didn't you?" Natasha scolded. She couldn't see the smirk that spread across Clint's face

* * *

"Hawkeye in position across from the target's house," Clint whispered 45 minutes later. He slipped his collapsible bow out of its compartment in his quiver and snapped it out to full length before laying it down next to him on the edge of the roof.

"The target is still at the restaurant," Natasha reported. The moment they had arrived in town, they had checked in with the S.H.I.E.L.D. surveillance agent assigned to the target and determined that he had gone to dinner with a potential customer. Natasha had changed out of her S.H.I.E.L.D. catsuit into a dark green ankle-length dress and gone to the restaurant to take over surveillance. Now she was sitting at the bar, nursing a martini and observing the mark with her peripheral vision.

"He's just paid his bill. He's shaking the other man's hand, and heading for the door. Estimate he'll be home in 10 minutes," Natasha whispered into her palm a minute later. She stood up, dropped a $20 bill on the counter, and walked to the bathroom.

* * *

Three minutes later, Natasha slipped through the bathroom window into the alley running alongside the restaurant. She had changed out of the dress into her catsuit and tucked the dress into a pocket of the suit. Staying to the shadows, she moved silently toward the front of the restaurant. As soon as she was close enough to see, she pulled her hair up under her hat and slid deeper into the shadows to observe. The mark was standing by the door next to the doorman, who was flagging down a taxi.

A taxi stopped, and the mark got in. As soon as he was in, Natasha climbed up the fire escape next to her and began leaping from rooftop to rooftop, careful to keep the taxi in view. Fortunately, the driver seemed to hit every red light, making it easier for her to keep up. Fifteen minutes later, the taxi pulled up in front of the target's house. Natasha stopped on the roof of an apartment building less than a block away.

The man stepped out of the car, reached into his pocket, pulled out a pair of $20 bills, handed them through the window to the driver, and said, "Keep the change."

"Thank you very much," Natasha heard the driver say before pulling back into the street. She climbed down the side of the apartment building she was crouching on, careful to keep her eyes on the target.

The target turned around and started walking up the steps to his house. Before he was halfway there, however, he stopped abruptly, a look of shock and terror in his eyes. A black arrow erupted from his throat. He let out a single gurgle, and fell to his knees, rolling over to his side when he landed. He was dead before the body had fully settled onto the stairs.

"Target eliminated," Clint said needlessly. "Black Widow, time to infiltrate."

Natasha jogged across the street and down the length of the block to the man's house. She carefully pulled the man's keys out of his limp grip and ascended to the door. Carefully, she inserted the correct key into the lock and turned it, listening for any unusual sounds as she did so. Not hearing anything, she slowly slid the door open.

The house was neatly cleaned and meticulously organized. Natasha scanned the room quickly, trained eyes alert for any signs of booby traps. Seeing none, she ventured further into the room. The man's computer sat on a desk against the far wall.

"Make it quick, Widow," Clint urged. "Someone must have already seen him. Local law enforcement is on the way."

Natasha didn't need the warning; she could hear the approaching sirens through the open front door. She quickly shut the door and strode over to the desktop computer. She pulled a flash drive out of her pocket and pushed it into the USB drive on the front side of the computer. The program on the flash drive immediately tunneled through the computer's security system and downloaded every file on the computer's hard drive.

The first police car pulled up in front of the house just as the files finished downloading onto the flash drive. Natasha spared a glance out the window and saw a pair of police officers circling around the house to the back door. She pulled the flash drive out of the computer, stowed it back in her pocket, and ran up the stairs to the second floor of the house. Just as she got to the top of the stairs, she heard a pair of splintering sounds as the police kicked in the front and back doors. Pounding footsteps on the first floor warned her that the police had entered and were closing in on her.

Natasha pulled open the door to the master bedroom, shut it behind her, and quietly pushed the dresser in front of the door to buy herself a little more time. She heard footsteps coming up the stairs. She pulled open the bedroom window and looked out. The house was separated from the building next door by about ten feet, and she could see a drainage pipe running down from the roof. She looked quickly in both directions, and determined that there weren't any police officers in sight. Taking a deep breath, she climbed onto the window sill just as the police started trying to force their way into the room. She pushed off from the window sill and reached forward with her hands.

She caught her gloved fingers around the drainage pipe. She nearly lost her grip, but held on and quickly slid down the pipe to the ground. As soon as she was on the ground, she slipped into the shadow cast by the building next door and hurried down the alley between the houses.

As she neared the street, she heard a motorcycle driving down the street. She timed her move carefully, and ran out into the street a couple seconds before the motorcycle would pass. The police officers at the front door saw her too late to stop her. She reached her arm out, looped it around Clint's waist as he passed, kicked her feet up, and swung herself onto the seat behind him. She grabbed her helmet from its holder on the side of the bike and put it on. As soon as it was on, she leaned forward into his back and squeezed her arms around him tighter.

"You were worried about me, weren't you?" she smirked.

Clint laughed. "Actually, I was. I was worried you would kill those cops and make a ton of paperwork for Phil, and that _he_ would kill you!"

* * *

The two Avengers circled the city once to make sure they were not being followed. When Clint was satisfied, he drove back to where they had left the quinjet. They drove into the clearing a few minutes before midnight. Natasha pulled out the quinjet's control device and clicked two buttons again. The quinjet flickered into existence in the middle of the clearing as the invisibility shielding deactivated. The loading ramp rapidly descended to the ground.

The motorcycle reached the quinjet when the ramp was still a couple inches from the ground. Clint pulled it up into a wheelie just before the front wheel reached the ramp. The ramp reached the ground an instant before both wheels made contact with it. Clint cut the engine and coasted to a stop in the middle of the main cabin. He lowered the kickstand and climbed off the bike. Natasha took her place in the copilot's seat and began the preflight procedure while Clint locked the bike in place with a pair of chains attached to the walls. He attached a pair of clamps in the floor to the bike's wheels and moved forward to the pilot's seat.

By the time Clint sat down, Natasha already had the jet ready for takeoff. Clint hit the button to raise the loading ramp at the same time that he initialized the hover foils. The quinjet lifted off from the forest clearing, rotated 90 degrees to face east, and sprang forward as Clint activated the thrusters.

* * *

"Hawkeye and Black Widow report that they've eliminated the weapons manufacturer. They are currently transmitting the intelligence they gathered from his computer," JARVIS said in the Avengers Command Center.

Steve Rogers nodded without rising from his chair. "Send the information to Dr. Banner's lab and tell him to start working on it," he ordered.

* * *

Bruce typed furiously on his computer, searching for the financial information from the weapons manufacturer's computer. He leaned forward and groaned, rubbing his forehead with his palms. Suddenly, he sat bolt upright and started typing again, accessing Justin Hammer's bank records. He typed in the access code he had created with the backdoor program, and the list of accounts connected to Justin Hammer's Swiss accounts popped up on the screen. Bruce ran his finger down the list until he reached the number at the bottom of the screen.

Bruce clicked on that link and reached another page. He compared the information on the screen in front of him to the information from the man's computer. Finally convinced, he printed out the information he had found, and leaned back in his chair with a satisfied grin.

"JARVIS, tell the Captain that we've got him. Justin Hammer is going away forever."


	29. Chapter 28

AN: Thanks to Qweb and TheNaggingCube for reviewing the last chapter. There is one chapter left to this story after this one, but I haven't written it yet. Unfortunately, it took me longer to write the last 7 chapters than the first 21 simply because classes started in there. I will get it finished… eventually (hopefully by next weekend). Review with what you think, as well as if you would like to see more stories in this universe.

* * *

"Who's there?" the man demanded, sitting up on his cot. He looked around wildly, convinced he had heard a noise inside his cell.

"Not bad," a voice replied from near the wall. "Most people never hear me until it's too late." Scott Lang materialized on the opposite side of the room as he returned to his normal size. "But then, I suppose you should have reason to be afraid."

"Who are you?" Justin Hammer demanded angrily, rising from his bunk. "I've never seen you before."

"Seriously? Are we doing this again?" Scott said, annoyed. "Fine. We met a few years back when you were trying to steal the plans to one of Tony Stark's inventions. Still not ringing a bell? Oh, right; I've got to be a little more specific about _which_ time when you tried to steal from Tony Stark! Okay, does getting buried up to your neck in cicadas ring any bells?"

Recognition dawned on Hammer's face and he took a step back. He pointed an accusing finger and said, "You! You were one of Anthony's security guys. You look different now…"

"Yeah, I lost some weight," Scott smirked, taking a step forward. "Of course, that's what happens when you get _swallowed up in a massive inferno and nearly burned to death and go on the medically-induced coma diet!_ Oh, you were probably expecting the leotard, weren't you?" Scott sat down in the chair placed in the corner of the room and looked Justin Hammer square in the eye. "I suppose I should actually be thanking you," he mused. "Since my old uniform got trashed in the warehouse explosion that nearly _killed_ me, I had to get a new one. I think this one looks a lot better than the other one, don't you?"

Justin Hammer was silent.

"I also got a couple of new toys out of the deal," Scott continued. "Do you like that nice bed over there? It looks a lot more comfortable than the ones that prisoners normally sleep on."

Hammer still didn't say anything.

"No response?" Scott smirked. "Guess you don't like it too much. Let me help you out with that." Scott held out his right arm, pointed it at the bed, and touched his fingers together. A pulse of yellow energy sprang out of the glove and hit the bed. The bed burst into flames as Justin Hammer leapt away with a yelp of surprise. "Like that? I sure do. So, thank you for nearly killing me and giving me an awesome new weapon," he said sarcastically.

Hammer moved as far away from Lang, who was still lounging on the chair, as possible. He huddled in the corner, fear in his eyes.

"What, do you honestly think I'm going to zap you with my new toy?" Scott smirked. He quickly added, "Don't get me wrong; I definitely thought about it. But no. We've got something else in mind for you. You see, we found your outside man, the one who built your drones. He's dead now, and we've managed to tie your bank accounts to his, so you're going down for this whole plot as a co-conspirator! I think the D.A. said that the judge who will hear your parole request's _grand_father hasn't been born yet. You've got a nice long sentence ahead of you…" Scott observed. "You're going to be moved into the isolation ward in about an hour, where you will spend the entire sentence. But it's not all bad; you will have some company: the prison guard you bought off." Hammer's eyes went wide. "Yep. We found him, and he's been sentenced as a co-conspirator along with you, so he'll be with you through the whole thing, and in the same cell, too. Have fun!"

Scott got up and walked back to the crack in the wall he'd come in through. He stopped when he reached it and said, "But before you go off to spend the rest of your life in a dark, dirty hole in some basement somewhere, someone else was anxious to come and see you." Scott pulled the electrode out of his utility belt, stooped down, and pressed a button. Bruce Banner materialized at about a quarter of his regular size. Before he had even finished fully growing, he was already turning green. Hammer's eyes shot open even wider in terror.

"Don't worry," Scott assured. "Hulk isn't his full size, so he shouldn't be able to _kill_ you. Well, you two have fun! I'll be back in an hour.

"Oh, one last thing," Scott said as he shrank down and started clambering into the crack in the wall. "Every year on this day, I am going to send an army of cicadas to embed themselves in the wall of your cell, and command them to chirp constantly until they die, just to remind you of this."

Scott walked out of the cell as an enraged two-and-a-half-foot-tall Hulk stalked menacingly toward the disgraced billionaire-turned-prisoner.

* * *

The first thing of which Tony was aware was that he was surprisingly comfortable. It felt like he was floating on a cushion of air. He tried to turn his head, but discovered that it wouldn't move. He tried lifting his right arm to feel his face, but realized that it seemed to be made of lead. Attempting with the left arm brought the same result.

He felt a slight pressure on his right hand. It confused him at first. The pressure felt warm and familiar. Tony mustered his strength and squeezed his right hand as hard as he could. His thumb and index finger moved minutely. The pressure and warmth on his hand suddenly increased.

"Tony?" The voice sounded vaguely familiar, though he could not quite place it. He squeezed his right hand again, and felt the same pressure on it. With what seemed like a herculean effort, Tony forced his eyes open.

The first thing Tony saw was a familiar face hovering above his head. The normally straight and well-kept strawberry-blond hair was frazzled and stuck out in odd directions. The lines on the face looked drawn, and its makeup was smeared. Deep bruising under the eyes hinted at sleepless nights filled with worry. The mouth was pulled into a tight line. Looking back up at the eyes, Tony saw worry and fear.

"P-Pepper?" Tony rasped out. He was suddenly aware of how dry his throat was.

As though she could read his mind, Pepper reached over and picked up a cup of water from the table and held it up to his lips. She slowly poured some of the contents into his mouth. He swished it around before swallowing. When he had, Pepper poured a little more in his mouth.

"Wha-what happened?" Tony asked when he had drunk enough water.

"What do you remember?"

"Not much," Tony replied, more strongly. He tried to push himself up into a sitting position, and exhaled heavily as Pepper assisted him and adjusted his pillows. He continued, "I remember giving an interview after Clint and I took out those bank robbers. I remember being tied to a chair and left in pitch darkness. I have a vague memory of an explosion and falling over and hitting my head."

"You were kidnapped," Pepper explained. "We think the reporters actually knocked you out and took you away."

"Who—?"

"Justin Hammer," she responded quickly.

"Hammer!?" Tony shouted, pushing himself up straighter in the bed.

Tony fell back, weakened by the sudden exertion, as Pepper put her hand on his arm and said, "Relax. It's already been taken care of. Steve, Rhodey, Vision, Bruce, and Scott Lang have already seen to it that he is held accountable for everything that happened."

"What did happen?" Tony asked, allowing her to fluff his pillows.

"He hacked into our system and sent us a message saying that he wanted to be released from prison, and there was nothing we could do to rescue you because he had a small army surrounding the Tower. To show how serious he was, he even had a woman shot outside the Tower.

"Rhodey and his team came in to try to find you, since they weren't in the Tower at the time. Meanwhile, Clint and Steve worked together to find the guys outside the Tower. Clint in particular went at the search like a man possessed. Rhodey found the building where you were being held yesterday about the same time that Clint and Steve came up with a plan to get us out of the Tower.

"Tony, I hope you realize how much everyone did for you yesterday," she interrupted herself forcefully, squeezing his hand. "Natasha nearly bled out and died in the street when a sniper shot her and hit her femoral artery. Lang was almost incinerated in a warehouse explosion. There was an incident where Agent Danvers absorbed so much energy that she nearly lost control of it, and who knows what would have happened. Rhodey and Vision got thrown across a room by an explosion. They were all buried in rubble when a building collapsed on them. Agent Morse may never recover from getting concussed twice and breaking both her legs."

"Believe me, Pepper, I realize how much the others would do for me," Tony replied, looking her in the eye. "And I would do the same for them if any of them were in the same situation.

"Pepper, you know that I'm not still that guy who only cared about his own life and reputation. You changed that. You are more important to me than anything else, and after you it's the members of my team. I realize the sacrifices that they made, and even more the one they were willing to make, for me. I am grateful for what they did for me. More than anything, I'm grateful to be here with you," he finished, leaning back into the bed.

"How is everyone?" Tony asked a minute later.

"Natasha has already recovered; one of the Asgardians that Thor brought gave her some medicine that healed her in a matter of minutes. Lang—I'm _still_ not sure how he got better; the doctors said he would be out of commission for a year at the least, but he was out for a day and returned to the fight just in time to save the team. Danvers, do you even need to ask? She was dead on her feet a couple nights ago, and back to normal—well, 'supernormal'—the next morning. Rhodey and Vision are both fine. Vision didn't even dent, and Rhodey's suit absorbed most of the impact. He needs to repair a lot of the pieces on the back, but other than that he's fine. When the factory collapsed on everyone, they all got dinged up a bit, but most of them came out all right. One of the Asgardians was nearly crushed and had to be rushed back to Asgard for healing. Agent Morse came out of it the worst; she's on the other side of the curtain. Bruce is worried she will have brain damage since she received two concussions less than a day apart," Pepper rattled off. "In all, I suppose we escaped this incident relatively intact: Of the 18 S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, superheroes, and Asgardians involved in this thing, everyone is still alive, and only one is still in critical condition now that you're awake," Pepper smiled wearily.

"You look exhausted, Pep," Tony noticed with concern. "When's the last time you slept?"

"I dozed a little while I was waiting for you to wake up," she responded, stifling a yawn. "I got a few hours of sleep while you were away, but not many."

"Climb in here, Pep," Tony instructed. "The bed's big enough, and the doctor won't complain. Or at least he won't if he still wants ready access to an electron microscope!"

Tony edged himself over on the bed and Pepper eased herself onto it next to him. She was asleep before her head touched the pillows.

* * *

"Thank you, Warden, I'm sure your precautions will be sufficient," Steve said, shaking the prison warden's hand.

"I must say, it is quite an honor to meet Captain America!" the man replied. "My father joined the Army because of your videos; he will be jealous that I got to meet you."

"Next time you see him, thank him for his service for me," Steve smiled. He turned to leave, Rhodey at his side. They stepped out of the building and walked through the prison yard to the gate. The guards opened the gate as soon as they reached it, and they strode out to the quinjet parked in the middle of the nearly-vacant parking lot. When they reached it, they walked up the open loading ramp and saw three figures lounging on the benches.

"Hammer taken care of?" Rhodey asked.

"Yep. He won't be forgetting about us anytime soon," Scott smirked.

"Vision?" Steve asked.

"I recorded the whole thing as you requested," the android replied with a grin.

"Excellent. Cue it up."


	30. Chapter 29

AN: Here's the final chapter. I apologize for making it so short and taking so long to write it; I had a heavy course load this past quarter. It's not the best writing I've ever done, so I may go back and improve it some time. Leave a comment and let me know if you would like to see a sequel (though no guarantees of when it would be written or posted).

Thanks to Sargerogue, TheNaggingCube, Qweb, and Wafflestripe for reviewing the last chapter.

[break]

"We must have a celebration after this glorious battle!" Thor bellowed as he followed Pepper into the Avengers' community room. It was the morning after Tony had woken up, and nearly everyone had recovered from the battle two days previous. Agent Morse remained in the medical lab in a medically-induced coma, and Bruce had decided to keep Tony there also for a couple days longer. The Warriors Three had returned from Asgard the previous afternoon, completely healed from their battle injuries. This morning, Steve was giving them a tour of the Tower.

"Celebration?" Pepper asked, turning to look at the Asgardian behind her.

"Do your people not have a custom of celebrating after glorious victories?" Thor responded, confused. "On Asgard, we hold a weeklong feast, and compose epic songs and stories commemorating the battle and those who have fallen. I recall that when I fought on this planet with your Vikings, they did the same. Do you not do so any longer?"

"Sometimes we do, though I was not intending to do anything like that today," Pepper replied.

"But we must give thanks that we all survived an that Tony is safe, and commemorate the sacrifice of those who were injured," Thor said.

Pepper sighed and looked around the room. She turned to walk toward the elevators and called behind her, "I'm sorry I don't have the time to put something together. But if you would like to have a feast, go right ahead. If you will excuse me, I'm late for a meeting on the Stark Industries levels."

"Very well, my lady," Thor said to her receding form.

[break]

That evening around six, Pepper returned from her meetings to find the entire community floor decorated and all the tables arranged in a long line across the middle of the room. The tables were piled high with every kind of food imaginable; in the middle was what looked like a cow that Thor had cooked whole.

Nearly all the occupants of the Tower were standing or sitting along the walls on either side of the table. As soon as he saw her walk in, Tony tried to get up from his wheelchair and go over to meet her. When he tried, though, Bruce put a single hand on his shoulder and glared menacingly. A moment later, Tony settled back into the wheelchair and allowed Bruce to push him over to the door. When he was sitting directly in front of Pepper, Tony held out a glass to her and said, "Pretty impressive, isn't it?"

"What happened in here?" Pepper asked, looking around.

"Goldilocks happened," Tony replied, sweeping his arm around the room. "Apparently you told him he could throw an Asgardian victory feast if he wanted to. He wanted to, so we've got an Asgardian victory feast! He and his Asgardian friends have been busy in here all day, though the Star-Spangled Boy Scout helped them out a little. I think the decorations were Danny Rand's idea."

"Where did they get all the food from? I mean, did we actually have a whole, live cow sitting in the pantry?"

"Clint and Romanoff found most of the food, though I think we have Agent Danvers to thank for the cow," Tony answered with a shrug. "I'm pretty sure Thor used Mjölnir to cook the cow as is."

"Was that the thunder I heard earlier?" Pepper asked, glancing at the war hammer sitting on the table next to the cow.

"Probably."

"Lady Pepper!" Thor roared across the room when he caught sight of the group by the door. He strode purposefully through the crowd toward the door, an enormous tankard of beer in his hand. Jane Foster clung tightly to his arm to keep from being left behind. "I would like to thank you for your hospitality," he grinned broadly.

"I'm afraid I wasn't very hospitable this morning," Pepper apologized.

"Think nothing of it," Thor smiled. "You have been under enormous stress this past week. I hope that this feast will help relieve some of it."

"I'm sure it will," Pepper smiled. She looked around and said, "The room looks very nice. The _Band of Brothers_ posters seem especially appropriate."

"Yes, I asked Agent Lang if he had any ideas for victorious decorations, and this is what he came up with." Thor looked around the room and said, "I wonder where he is? But no matter; let us feast!"

Thor walked over to the table with Jane, and they took their places in the middle of the table. Once they were seated, everyone else walked over to sit down, with Tony sitting at the head. Without waiting for everyone, Thor ripped a leg off the cow sitting in front of him and dug in. Everyone else followed suit. Slowly the conversation resumed. Five minutes in, Volstagg was roaring with laughter as Luke Cage described interrogating their prisoners.

"…So Danny gives his, 'the "innocent" part was unusually short, and the "proven guilty" part already happened' line, and the guy completely freaks out! I'm pretty sure he thought we were sending him to a secret prison on the _moon_ for the rest of his life!" Luke laughed. "It took less than five minutes before the guy was pouring his heart out to us!"

Volstagg slammed his beer glass on the table and said, "You are truly master interrogators! I marvel that you succeeded so quickly when the Asgardian interrogators take so much longer to pry the information out of our prisoners."

"It's all in the facial expression, man," Luke replied dismissively.

At that moment, the elevator doors opened, and a wheelchair rolled out. Scott Lang pushed the wheelchair further into the room, and Bobbi Morse grinned when she saw surprised looks around the table.

"Look who just woke up from her medically-induced coma!" Scott announced.

"You really shouldn't have brought her out of the medical lab without telling me," Bruce admonished him, rising from his place at the table between Rhodey and Carol Danvers, who got up at the same time.

"When Scott told me everyone was having a party, I wanted to see for myself," Bobbi explained. "Don't worry; I'm not going to stay."

Carol stooped over and gave Bobbi a hug, "I'm glad to see you awake, Bobbi."

"Thanks…" Bobbi replied slowly. "Sorry; I can't remember your name. Actually, I'm having trouble with everyone's names."

"Carol," the other woman replied with a smile.

"Hopefully your memory will come back," Bruce reassured her.

"I would like to propose a toast," Thor called out, standing up at his place. "To good friends and brave warriors. To glorious battle and victory. To the Avengers!"


End file.
